Deborah Sampson

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Women of the Revolution

• Deborah Sampson
• Betsy Ross
• Phillis Wheatley
• Nancy Morgan Hart
• Molly Pitcher
• Abigail Adams

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Deborah Sampson

• Life Summary
• Portrait of Deborah Sampson

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Deborah Sampsons Life

• Deborah Sampson was born in Plympton,
  Massachusetts. She was born on December 17, 1760.
  She died in 1827. She read a copy of Tom Paine's
  Common Sense, and decided to make herself some
  men's clothing and disguise herself as a man and
  fight in the Revolutionary War as a soldier. She
  went to Medway, Massachusetts and enlisted in the
  army as Robert Shirtliff.
• It is not certain how long Deborah served in the
  army but she was wounded twice. The first time
  she got a sword slash on her head during a
  skirmish with Loyalist soldiers near Tarrytown,
  New York. A few months later she was shot in the
  shoulder with a musket ball. It was not
  discovered that she was a woman when she got
  medical help.
• Her true identity was not revealed until she got
  sick with yellow fever in Philadelphia. When she
  rejoined her troop her doctor gave her commanding
  officer a letter telling them the truth. The
  officers were shocked but Deborah had earned
  their respect. Instead of the punishment she
  expected, she received an honorable discharge
  from the army.

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Deborah Sampson
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Betsy Ross

• Life Summary
• Primary Resource
• Portrait of Betsy Ross

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Betsy Ross

• Betsy Ross was born in Philadelphia on January 1,
  1752. She was 21 years old when she married John
  Ross. Many people say that Betsy Ross made the
  first flag of the United States of America from a
  sketch that George Washington gave her. In June
  1776 a committee of the Continental Congress is
  supposed to have given her a rough sketch for a
  flag which Washington designed. Although there is
  no real documentation that the story is true,
  there is no evidence that it is not true. It is
  true that Betsy Ross was a seamstress and made
  many flags during the Revolutionary War for the
  Pennsylvania Navy. The design that Betsy Ross was
  the first to sew for the United States was
  officially adopted by Congress on June 14, 1777,
  The flag had thirteen stripes and thirteen stars.
  Her flag-making business did very well and was
  carried on even after she died by her daughter.
  Betsy Ross died in Philadelphia on January 30,
  1836. The United States celebrated the 200th
  anniversary of her birthday with a postage stamp
  being made in her honor in 1952.

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"The History of the Flag of the United
States" by William CanbyA Paper read before the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania (in 1870),
entitled THE HISTORY OF THE FLAG OF THE UNITED
STATES by William J. CanbyPhiladelphia
The First American Flag and Who Made It.
According to a well sustained tradition in the
family of Elizabeth Claypoole (the Elizabeth
Ross) this lady is the one to whom belongs the
honor of having made with her own hands the first
flag. Three of her daughters are still living who
confirm this statement, not from their own
knowledge, for the flag was made before they were
born, but from the recollection of their mother's
often repeated narration and from hearing it told
by others who were cognizant of the facts during
their childhood and there is also yet living a
niece of Mrs Claypoole's, Mrs Margaret Boggs (now
in her 95th year) who resides with a niece in
Germantown, Philadelphia, and still has full
possession of all her faculties, who remembers
well the incidents of the transaction as she
heard it told, in her intimate intercourse with
the family many times. The writer of this paper
in the year 1857 had a conversation on the
subject with the eldest daughter of Elizabeth
Claypoole, then in active life, but since
deceased, Mrs Clarissa S. Wilson, who succeeded
her mother in the business of flag and color
making and continued it for many years. Mrs
Wilson's statement was put in writing at the
time, as have been also the statements of her
sisters and of Mrs Boggs and the substance of
them is now given. We believe the fact is not
generally known that to Philadelphia belongs the
honor of having first flung the "Star Spangled
Banner" to the breeze, and that to a Philadelphia
lady, long since gathered to her fathers, belongs
the honor of having made the first flag with her
own hands.
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Portrait of Betsy Ross
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Phillis Wheatley

• Life Summary
• More of Phillis Wheatleys life-primary document
• Poems of Phillis Wheatley

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Phillis Wheatley-Life Summary

• Phillis Wheatley was born in 1753. She was a
  young child when she was taken from her family in
  Africa with about 80 other captured people on a
  slave ship. The slave ship came to Boston,
  Massachusetts in 1761 and a man named John
  Wheatley bought Phillis.
• When Phillis was fourteen she started to write
  poems. She became famous for her poetry. People
  from other colonies came to meet the poet. In
  1773, Phillis had a chance to go to England. She
  was not even 20 years old. She was able to get
  her poems published. It was the first book ever
  published by a black person from North America.
• When Phillis came back to America, Boston was
  caught up in the Revolutionary War. Phillis wrote
  a poem about George Washington and sent it to
  him. General Washington wrote back to her and
  thought she was very talented. But Phillis did
  not have an easy life. She was sick a lot and
  died when she was only 31 years old.

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Phillis Wheatley

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Poems of Phillis Wheatley
On Virtue  O Thou bright jewel in my aim I
striveTo comprehend thee. Thine own words
declareWisdom is higher than a fool can reach.I
cease to wonder, and no more attemptThine height
t' explore, or fathom thy profound.But, O my
soul, sink not into despair,Virtue is near thee,
and with gentle handWould now embrace thee,
hovers o'er thine head.Fain would the
heav'n-born soul with her converse,Then seek,
then court her for her promis'd bliss.Auspicious
queen, thine heav'nly pinions spread,And lead
celestial Chastity alongLo! now her sacred
retinue descends,Array'd in glory from the orbs
above.Attend me, Virtue, thro' my youthful
years!O leave me not to the false joys of
time!But guide my steps to endless life and
bliss.Greatness, or Goodness, say what I shall
call thee,To give me an higher appellation
still,Teach me a better strain, a nobler lay,O
thou, enthron'd with Cherubs in the realms of
day. Phillis Wheatley

• One Being Brought From Africa To America  'TWAS
  mercy brought me from my Pagan land,Taught my
  benighted soul to understandThat there's a God,
  that there's a Saviour tooOnce I redemption
  neither sought now knew,Some view our sable race
  with scornful eye,'Their colour is a diabolic
  die.'Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as
  Cain,May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
  Phillis Wheatley

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Nancy Morgan Hart

• Summary of Life
• More on the Life of Nancy Morgan Hart

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Nancy Morgan Hart

• Nancy Morgan Hart was born in 1765 and died in
  1840. She was not an educated person but she
  loved the idea that everyone should be free. She
  had a big heart for her friends. They say she
  didn't have very good manners but she knew how to
  handle a gun. She was a sharpshooter.
• She made history by shooting a gun at some
  Loyalist soldiers who broke into her house. First
  she and her daughter Sukey tricked them by making
  a turkey for them. Then when the soldiers started
  drinking, Nancy grabbed one of their guns and
  fired. She shot one of the soldiers dead. Her
  daughter then handed her another musket and she
  fired and killed another British soldier. They
  then agreed to surrender but Mrs. Morgan Hart
  kept them until her husband returned. He was
  about to shoot them all but his wife told them
  that they had surrendered and she said that
  shooting was too good for them.
• So the dead men were dragged outside and the
  others were taken outside and hung from a tree.
  This story turned out to be true many years later
  when a railroad company was planning to build
  where the Hart cabin was. When the railroad tore
  down the cabin they found six skeletons!

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Molly Pitcher

• Life of Molly Pitcher
• Movie of Molly Pitcher

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Abigail Adams

• Summary of Life
• Primary Document, letter to John Adams

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Abigail Adams

• Abigail Adams was born in Massachusetts in 1744.
  She married John Adams the Colonial Leader and
  signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was
  also the second President of the United States of
  America. She had ideas she would tell her
  husband. They were both leaders in a fight for
  independence. She wanted America to break away
  from Great Britain so they could make their own
  laws. She thought that the women should have more
  power. "And in the new laws which you will make,
  I wish you will remember the ladies. Be more
  favorable and generous to them than your
  ancestors. Do not put so much power in the hands
  of husbands."
• People know a lot about Abigail Adams because of
  the letters she wrote to her husband while he was
  away. In 1774 he was in Philadelphia at the First
  Continental Congress. Then he was away when the
  Declaration of Independence was being signed.
  Abigail had a lot to do at home when he was away.
  She taught her daughters and ran the farm. She
  did not always think it was fair that women had
  to stay home. She made people think about women's
  rights.