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| Engraving of Deborah Sampson |
Deborah Sampson is one of the
rare women who literally fought the British during the Revolutionary War. While
other women were doing their part by caring for their families, standing behind
their husbands and tactfully lending their opinion on political issues, Deborah
Sampson was donning men’s clothing and carrying a rifle. She wasn’t a feminist
and she wasn’t railing against injustice; she was simply doing what she could
for her country. Aside from her bravery and skill as a soldier, there was
nothing particularly unique about her. Perhaps that is what made her such an
admirable individual.
Deborah Sampson was born on
December 17, 1760 in Plympton, Massachusetts. She was the oldest of six
children born into an impoverished family. She had two sisters and three
brothers. Her parents were Jonathan and Deborah Sampson (originally spelt
Samson). Before Deborah was five-years-old, her father left his family to seek
his fortune at sea. It was later learned that he likely died there. Dead or
not, he never returned to his wife and children. Deborah’s mother had no means
to care for her children and so she sent them all to stay with friends,
relatives and neighbors. Her namesake was sent to stay with a female relative,
who unfortunately died three years later.
After the death of Deborah’s
foster mother, she went to live with another family for a couple of years. When
her time there was up, a deacon named Jeremiah Thomas took her on as an
indentured servant. It would seem that Jeremiah was good to Deborah, but she
certainly worked very hard in both the fields and in the home, becoming a
skilled laborer during her time there. She was also allowed to attend school
when work around the farm was scarce. This enabled her to become a teacher at
the age of 18 when her servitude was over. She stayed with the deacon for a
little while longer, but then Deborah Sampson began leading a very different
life.
Soon after Deborah Sampson left
her longtime home, she began dressing as a man and enjoying freedoms she
couldn’t have in women’s clothing. She also attempted to enlist with the
Continental Army, but was soon found out. Undeterred, she tried again and on
May 20, 1782, Deborah Sampson enlisted in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment of
the Continental Army as Robert Shirtliff. After she had left Massachusetts with
her regiment, her church excommunicated her for her previous behavior. None of
them knew that she had succeeded in enlisting.
Deborah Sampson’s time in the
military was eventful. During a skirmish in New York, she was wounded in both
the head and leg. She hid the leg wound so that her gender would not be
discovered. Her comrades did not suspect that Robert was a woman; they just
assumed that “he” was very boyish. Nonetheless, her gender was eventually
discovered in Philadelphia. She had come down with malignant fever and was
hospitalized. A kind doctor treated her in the hospital and then allowed her to
stay in his home. He did eventually reveal her secret, but he did so while extolling
her admirable qualities. General Henry Knox gave her an honorable discharge on
October 25, 1783.
Deborah returned to
Massachusetts and found work on a farm. She married a farmer named Benjamin
Gannett in April of 1784. The couple had three children together. Their names
were Earl, Mary and Patience. Deborah was granted a single soldier’s pension
payment of 34 pounds around 1792. Years later, her friend Paul Revere penned a
letter to Congress requesting a fair soldier’s pension for the veteran, Deborah
Sampson. The request was granted and in 1804, she began receiving a monthly
pension of four dollars a month.
In 1802, Deborah Sampson gave
lectures about her service, during which she donned her Army uniform and
conducted drills with her rifle. She must have been quite the sight to people
of colonial Massachusetts. This would be the first time she was able to reveal
both of her identities in public without fear. She died twenty-three years
later, at the age of sixty-six. Her body was interred at the Rockridge Cemetery
in Sharon, Massachusetts.
Sources
Boris, Danuta, Deborah Sampson,
retrieved 2/27/10, distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/sampson.html
Barney, Lora, Deborah Sampson,
retrieved 2/27/10, teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/byrnes-famous/sampson.htm
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