Monday, July 13, 2009

Deborah Sampson. (Module 4)

Deborah Sampson was born on December 17, 1760 in Plympton, Massachusetts and she was the oldest daughter of Jonathan and Deborah Sampson. On Ancestry.com hosted by rootsweb, “Deborah Sampson Soldier of the American Revolution”, “Deborah’s grandmother, the spirited Bathsheba, was very close to her daughter Deborah, often visited her grandchildren in Plympton. She spoiled young Deborah outrageously, according to Deborah’s mother, as Deborah, with her bright mind and warm, affectionate nature, became Bathsheba’s favorite. Deborah remembered her grandmother telling her many times in her French accent the inspiring story of the heroine of France, Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans who in a pair of breeches led the French army to victory over the British. She was burned at the stake for her bravery because she insisted she was responsible only to God and not to the hypocritical rulers of the church.” I think Deborah’s grandmother telling her all the female heroic stories influenced her greatly. Deborah was inspired to create her own heroic stories to be told.


Deborah and her family were poor due to her father leaving them and going off to sea. Deborah’s mother was in poor health and she was unable to care for her and her siblings. Deborah and her siblings were sent to live with various neighbors and relatives to take care of them. (Bois) When Deborah was ten years old, she became an indentured servant for Benjamin Thomas with his wife and eight sons until she was eighteen years old. After her service she stayed with them and helped with the housework and in the fields. Deborah became physically strong due to the hard labor and she learned many things. Deborah learned how to handle a musket and she became a proficient shooter due to going on hunting ventures with the Thomas’ sons. On December 16, 1775, the Revolutionary War from the peeling of the First Presbyterian Church tower bell began and Thomas’ two sons died while fighting with the Marquis de Lafayette in Virginia. Deborah had come to love the Thomas’ sons as brothers and their deaths motivated her to join the fight. (Ancestry.com)


On May 20, 1782, Deborah was twenty one and she enlisted in the Fourth Massaschusetts Regiment of the Continental Army at Bellingham as a man named Robert Shurtleff which was her mother’s first born child’s name that died at age 8 years. Deborah didn’t have any problems disguising herself as a man and her mother didn’t even recognize her. (Wikipedia.org) Deborah was 5’7 and she bound her breasts tightly to approximate a male physique. The soldiers assumed Deborah didn’t have any facial hair due to being a young boy but she was teased about it. (Ancestry.com)


Deborah suffered many injuries from the battles she fought. She was afraid of being discovered as a female so she tried to heal her own wounds. She took a bullet in her thigh that troubled her the rest of her life. Her real identity was revealed when she came down with a “malignant fever”. Dr. Binney, an attending physician of a Philadelphia hospital discovered her true identity and he didn’t say anything. Dr. Binney took her to his house where she would receive better care. When she recovered, Dr. Binney met with the commanding officer and she was ordered to issue a letter to General Washington that revealed her identity. “In silence Washington handed Deborah Sampson a discharge from the service, a note with some words of advice, and a sum of money sufficient to bear her expenses home.” (Ancestry.com) I think the men who discovered that she was a female may have felt she was an extraordinary woman. I make this assumption based on the treatment she was given after they found out.


Deborah was awarded a pension from the state of Massachusetts after nine years. In 1804, she also received a U.S. pension. While at the capital, a bill was passed granting her a pension, certain land and she would receive an acknowledgement for her services to the country in a military capacity as a Revolutionary Soldier. Patrick J. Leonard, Canton Massachusetts Historical Society, writes that Deborah Sampson, alias Robert Shurtleff, soldier of the American Revolution, was honored in a proclamation signed by Governor Michael J. Dukakis on May 23, 1983 to be the “Official Heroine of the State of Massaschusetts.” (Ancestry.com) I can ‘t believe that Deborah Sampson who’s considered an “Official Heroine of the State of Massachusetts” is hardly mentioned in history books. In Eric Foner’s Give Me Liberty! An American History, Deborah is only mentioned briefly regarding Revolutionary Women. I don’t understand how history books can write chapters and chapters about the greed of men and only write four sentences on a heroine.



  • Ancestry.com hosted by rootsweb. "Deborah Sampson Soldier of the American Revolution".

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nwa/sampson.html


  • Bois, Danuta. "Deborah Sampson (1760-1827)".


  • "Deborah Sampson".


  • Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History.
Seagull Edition. New York, 2009.



2 comments:

  1. Comments: Module 4: by Katherine Halliday

    I thoroughly enjoyed reading your detailed history of Deborah Sampson which included her reasoning and her determination to fight during the Revolutionary War. I was amazed at her ability to hide her identity as a female while fighting with passion in remembrance of Benjamin Thomas’s two sons who died earlier fighting in the same war. Your topic was original and well researched and you were able to support your thesis statement. You ended your blog with a question about how could Deborah Sampson, a Revolutionary War heroine be barely mentioned in the chapters of history amongst all the greed of men.

    Actually my blog discussed the greed of men or more specifically our founding fathers which was brilliantly covered by the perception of democracy. Unfortunately, not much has changed over the course of history. In fact, Alexis de Tocqueville is quoted as saying, “The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.” (quotes) The aristocratic few, the wealthy with a need to not only maintain but increase their personal wealth devised democracy to rally the poor into believing in their cause and support of independence. “…the myth of the Revolution—that it was on behalf of a united people. (Zinn 55) “The reality behind the words of the Declaration of Independence was that a rising class of important people needed to enlist on their side enough Americans to defeat England, without disturbing too much the relations of wealth and power that had developed over 150 years of colonial history.” (Zinn 57) The founding fathers were quite successful in planning, carrying out, and mobilizing the mob masses to believe that it was necessary to everyone throughout the colonies to gain independence from England.

    Today, not much has changed. One of my all time favorite quotes is by Louis D. Brandeis, a Supreme Court Judge which states, "We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." All around us the political and corporate greed by the very wealthiest citizens of the United States is driving the economy and the stability of this country into the ground. It is my hope that someday we will have a true democracy, one in which people will be people, not female, not of a color—just people and that they will be recognized by their personal accomplishments. When this happens, Deborah Sampson will receive more than four lines in the chapters of history.

    I enjoyed reading your blog. Keep up the good work. Katherine Halliday

    http://www.iefd.org/articles/democracy_quotes.php
    Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. Abridged Teaching Edition. New York: NY, 1980.

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  2. I wrote about Women and the Revolution in my last blog and came across many stories of heroic woman. Deborah Sampson was just one. Two others that come to mind were Margaret Cochran Corbin who stood on the front lines with her husband. She participated in several battles. Corbin also received a pension. Mary Ludwig Hays also known as Molly Pitcher, supplied water to the troops. When her husband was wounded she assumed his duties as a matross assisting the other artillerymen.

    Your blog was very informative and well written. Women were a big part of the Revolution. They held many things together. As camp followers women cooked, did laundry, nursed men back to health. You are correct in saying little is written about women and the Revolution compared to the greed of men. I am surprised that these women were given a pension.

    Truly, we have come a long way. I am 46 and just to see the opportunities my daughters have in front of them is refreshing. My mother was told she did not need to go to college because she would meet a man, marry and he would provide for a family. So her brother was the one that went to college.

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