Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson Gannett , also Deborah Samson or Deborah Sampson (born December 17, 1760 in Plympton , Province of Massachusetts Bay , † April 19, 1827 in Sharon , Massachusetts ), was an American soldier and lecturer. She served in the Continental Army , disguised as a man named Robert Shirtliff, during the American Revolutionary War .

Life

Deborah Sampson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts in 1760 as one of seven children of Jonathan Sampson Jr. and Deborah Bradford Sampson was born. Her parents could trace her ancestry back to early settlers who had already come to the country on the Mayflower . Her mother was a descendant of Massachusetts Colonial Governor William Bradford . After her father did not return from a sea voyage, as the family assumed (in fact, he had left the family to raise another family in Maine ), her now impoverished mother had to send the children to strange households. At the time, Deborah Sampson was five years old. Deborah Sampson came into the household of the elderly widow Mary Prince Thatcher, who taught her rudimentary reading and writing. This triggered in her the desire for education, which was rather unusual for a girl at the time. Mary Thatcher died five years later, and at the age of 10, Deborah Sampson was given to the household of the deacon Benjamin Thomas, a farmer in Middleborough , and his extended family as an indenture servant . Thomas had ten sons and did not think much of education for women, so the only way to learn was by following the sons' evening reports on what they had learned in school. After her contract ended on her 18th birthday, she was able to work as a teacher in summer and as a weaver in winter thanks to her self-developed education. In addition, she sold small tools and accessories made of wood, such as spindles, which she made herself.

Life as a soldier

Sampson attempted to join the army in 1781. She disguised herself as a man and with a height of 1.7 m she was quite tall even for a man in her day. Since she was slim and had only a small breast, she passed for a young man. She took the name Timothy Thayer and enlisted in the army in Middleborough at the beginning of 1782. However, her identity was revealed even before her ministry began. She was expelled from the First Baptist Church of Middleborough in September.

Leaving Middleborough, Sampson went to the harbor at New Bedford and came to Boston, where she joined the Continental Army in May 1782 as Robert Shurtleff of Uxbridge . Sampson was inducted into the 4th Massachusetts Regiment under the command of George Webb. It was a unit of the light infantry .

Their job was to scout the neutral area around Manhattan to determine the build-up of the British army, as George Washington was planning an attack in June 1782. Together with two officers, she led 30 infantrymen through the area. It resulted in a battle against the Tories. She was also involved in a robbery on a position in which 15 men were captured. She dug trenches around Yorktown headquarters, helped storm a British redoubt, and was subject to cannon fire.

Sampson served in the Army for over two years without being discovered. She was wounded, removed a bullet from her thigh with a knife and was slightly disabled. She was assigned as a servant to General John Paterson , and in June 1783 her unit was transferred to Philadelphia to put down a mutiny of soldiers waiting for outstanding pay. In Philadelphia, she became seriously ill with an infectious disease during an epidemic and was hospitalized under the care of Dr. Brought Barnabas Binney. He recognized her gender and brought her to his home to have his wife and daughters care for her. After she recovered after a few months and was due to return to duty under General Paterson, Binney gave her a note for the general. In this, Binney Paterson revealed her gender and this was so impressed by her courage and commitment that he ensured that Sampson was honorably discharged from the army on October 25, 1783. After her release, she returned to Massachusetts.

After serving in the army

Sampson married Benjamin Gannett, a farmer, and settled in Sharon. With him she had three children, Earl, Mary, and Patience. They also adopted another girl, Susanna.

Life and work on the farm were barely enough to support the family, as Deborah Gannett fought for state recognition of a pension. From 1802 she traveled through America on a lecture tour and reported on her experiences in the war. Sometimes she put on her military uniform and allowed the writer Herman Mann to write a novel about her life. The book is titled: Deborah Sampson, The Female Review or memoirs of an American Young Lady .

She began her lecture tour in June 1802, which lasted until April 1803. She gave her lectures in every major town in Massachusetts and in the Hudson River Valley and ended them in New York City. Gannett was hailed as The American Heroine at her lectures . She wore normal woman's clothes during the lecture. At the end of a lecture, the audience sang patriotic songs and Gannett returned to the stage in her military uniform. There she performed a complex, 27-step military exercise with her musket.

She found support in her fight for a military pension from Paul Revere , a hero of the Revolutionary War who also lent her money, as well as Congressman William Eustis from Massachusetts and her old commanding officer General John Paterson. She had received a one-time back payment of £ 34 through petition to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1792, and after her lecture tour she was fighting for a handicapped pension. She was granted this in 1805 and received a lump sum payment of $ 104 and an annual annuity of $ 48. She converted this into a total annual pension of $ 96 in 1818. She fought for a retroactive pension until her death.

After a long illness, Deborah Gannett died on April 29, 1827. Since the family had no money for a tombstone, the grave remained unmarked until the middle of the 19th century. Only then was a tombstone erected that initially read: "Deborah, Wife of Benjamin Gannett". A few years later her life was remembered and added: "Deborah Sampson Gannett / Robert Shurtliff / The Female Soldier".

Honors

Statue in front of the public library in Sharon

The Town of Sharon honored Deborah Sampson with Deborah Sampson Street and a statue of her was placed in front of the public library, Deborah Sampson Field and Deborah Sampson House .

On May 23, 1983 Deborah Sampson was Governor Michael Dukakis for Heroine of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts declared.

literature

• Herman Mann, John Adams Vinton, University of California Libraries: The female review. Life of Deborah Sampson, the female soldier in the war of the revolution . Tarrytown, NY, Reprinted, W. Abbatt, 1916 (English).
• Rick Burke: Deborah Sampson . Capstone Classroom, 2003, ISBN 1-4034-3104-3 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
• Alfred F. Young: Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier . Vintage Books, 2005, ISBN 0-679-76185-3 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
• Ann McGovern: The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson . Baker & Taylor, CATS, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4420-6109-5 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
• Sheila Solomon Klass: Soldier's Secret: The Story of Deborah Sampson . Henry Holt and Company (BYR), 2009, ISBN 978-1-4299-9493-4 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Heather Michon Heather Michon is a US, women's history writer She has contributed to more than a dozen encyclopedias, book series for educational publishers like Smithsonian Books: Deborah Sampson: Hidden Heroine of the American Revolution. In: thoughtco.com. ThoughtCo, accessed June 8, 2019 .  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Deborah Sampson. In: womenhistoryblog.com. 2010, Retrieved June 8, 2019 (American English).  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Deborah Sampson. In: womenshistory.org. National Women's History Museum, accessed June 8, 2019 .  
4. ↑ Deborah Sampson. In: britannica.com. Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed June 8, 2019 . 

Web links

• Deborah Sampson in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• New England Historical Society: Deborah Sampson