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DEBORAH SAMPSON Revolutionary War Soldier Born in 1760 - Died in 1827

Deborah Sampson's family was very poor. She was the oldest of six children. Her father deserted his family and went to sea on a ship. When her mother could no longer feed her family, she sent them to live with friends and relatives.

Eventually, at the age of 8 to 10 years old, she became an indentured * servant. She worked on a farm and worked very hard. She learned to sew and spin. She could hunt, ride a horse, and even do carpenter work. She loved to learn and would get the boys in the family to teach her the lessons they were learning in school. She learned so well that she later became a teacher.

During the Revolutionary War she wanted to help, but they did not allow girls to join the army. She decided she could join the army if she pretended to be a man. She practiced walking and talking like a man until she could even fool her mother. She was ready. She became an enlisted * "man" using the name Robert Shurtleff.

Statue of Deborah Sampson outside the Sharon, Massachusetts public library. (CC)

She was tall for a woman; 5 foot and 7 inches, so her fellow soldiers thought she was a short man. They teased "Robert" because he didn't have to shave, but they just thought this "boy" was too young to grow a beard.

"Robert" was a good, brave soldier and volunteered * for some dangerous jobs. The other soldiers were proud of him. Deborah became the aide * , or personal helper of the general. She served him his meals and took care of his clothes for him.

Things were going well until she was wounded in battle. She let the doctor treat the wound on her head, but she removed the bullet from her leg by herself with a penknife and a needle. Her leg never did heal properly, but her secret was still safe. She was afraid if they found out she was a girl, they would shoot her.

Later she developed a fever and was put in the hospital. The doctor discovered that "Robert" was actually a woman. He took her to his family's home to get well. She was given an honorable discharge * from the army.

After she left the army, she married a farmer named Benjamin Gannett and they had three children. She taught at a school and also would give talks or lectures about her experiences in the war. At the end of her lectures, she would leave the stage and then come back onstage dressed in her uniform and go through the soldier's routine with the gun.

Paul Revere wrote a letter to Congress asking for her to be given a pension * . She began receiving four dollars a month.

She died at the age of sixty-six.

This biography by Patsy Stevens, a retired teacher, was written in 2001.

A frequent question: "Who wrote this biography and when was it written?" Look on this Reference Citations Chart.

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From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster
(Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by ə)

indenture
Pronunciation: in-'den-chər
Function: noun 1 : a written agreement :
2 : a contract by which one person is made to work for another for a stated period

enlisted
Pronunciation: in-'lis-təd
Function: adjective
: of, relating to, or forming the part of a military or naval force in the ranks below commissioned or warrant officers

volunteer
Function: verb
1 : to offer voluntarily
2 : to offer oneself as a volunteer

aide
Pronunciation: 'Ad
Function: noun
: a person who acts as an assistant

pension
Pronunciation: 'pen-chən
Function: noun
: a sum paid regularly to a person especially following retirement or to surviving dependents

Revolutionary War By Teacher Created Resources Thematic Units from Teacher Created Materials are literature based, cross-curricular, and ready to use. They provide activities, many of them hands-on, for all areas of the curriculum, including math, science, language arts, social studies, physical education, art, and music. Each book offers two or more literature-based units and lesson plans plus cross-curricular activities and worksheets, a culminating activity, management ideas, and a bibliography. The books used in this unit (that will need to be purchased or borrowed) are--Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes and The Fighting Ground by Avi. Complete and comprehensive, these reproducible units are designed with student interest and teacher usability in mind. The planning is complete. 80 pages, softcover. Grades 5-8.

More than Petticoats: Remarkable North Carolina Women

A LIBRARY OF
ONLINE BOOKS and BOOK PREVIEWS

Life of Deborah Sampson
by John Adams Vinton (selected pages) Order here

Portrait of Deborah - A Drama in Three Acts
by Charles Emery (selected pages)
This book is currently unavailable at bookstores.

Women public speakers in the United States, 1800-1925 - Deborah Sampson
by Karlyn Kohrs Campbell (selected pages)

Voices of the American Revolution, Deborah Sampson
by Kendall F. Haven (selected pages)

Deborah Sampson
The American Monthly Magazine Volume 15 by Daughters of the American Revolution (selected pages)

Deborah Sampson
Graham's Magazine Volume 39 (selected pages)

Preview the Amazon books using the links below.

Skill Sharpener's Reading, Grade 6 - Deborah Sampson
by Martha Cheney (selected pages)

Deborah Sampson
by Rick Burke (selected pages)

Soldier's Secret, The Story of Deborah Sampson
by Sheila Solomon Klass (selected pages)

Glory, Passion, and Principle, the Story of Eight Remarkable Women - Deborah Sampson
by Melissa Lukeman Bohrer (selected pages)

Revolutionary women in the War for American Independence - Deborah Sampson
by Elizabeth Fries Ellet, Lincoln Diamant (selected pages)

Page Comments

Most Recent Comments   ( See more comments on this page )

2012-02-14 this is really good Gomes

2012-02-14 this was really good

2012-02-09 i like deborah sampson jane

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Biographies in this Series

Reference citations information for these biographies

Presidents of the United States	George Washington	John Adams	Thomas Jefferson	James Madison	James Monroe	Andrew Jackson
	Martin Van Buren	Abraham Lincoln	Theodore Roosevelt	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Harry S. Truman	Dwight D. Eisenhower
	John F. Kennedy	Lyndon B. Johnson	Jimmy Carter	Ronald Reagan	Barack Obama	Calvin Coolidge
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin	Francis Scott Key	Deborah Sampson	Molly Pitcher
World Leaders	Constantine	Alexander the Great	Winston Churchill
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell	Johann Gutenberg	Cyrus McCormick	The Wright Brothers	Henry Ford	Thomas A. Edison
	Sequoyah	Nikola Tesla	Michael Faraday	Dean Kamen	Jack Kilby	Leonardo Da Vinci
	Donald O'Neal
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	Kit Carson	Johnny Appleseed	Daniel Boone
Women who made a difference	Clara Barton	Helen Keller	Florence Nightingale	Joan of Arc	Amelia Earhart	Annie Oakley
	Susan B. Anthony	Elizabeth Keckly	Harriet Tubman	Anne Frank	Eleanor Roosevelt	Madam C.J. Walker
	Sadako Sasaki	Henrietta Lacks
Scientists	George Washington Carver	Sir Isaac Newton	Marie Curie	Louis Pasteur	Albert Einstein	Galileo
	Lise Meitner	Norman Borlaug	Benjamin Banneker
Educators	Noah Webster	Booker T. Washington	Aristotle	Mary McLeod Bethune
Physicians	Hippocrates	Walter Reed	Albert Schweitzer
Religious Leaders	George Muller	Increase Mather
Athletes	Lou Gehrig	Wilma Rudolph	Tiger Woods	Michael Phelps
Civil Rights Leaders	Martin Luther King	Rosa Parks	Sojourner Truth	Frederick Douglass	Mary Ann Shadd Cary	James Forten
	Gandhi	César Chávez	William Wilberforce	Nelson Mandela
Composers	Beethoven	Mozart
Authors	Laura Ingalls Wilder	Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)	Ernest Hemingway	Greg Mortenson	Phillis Wheatley
Artists	John James Audubon	Gutzon Borglum	Ansel Adams	Dale Chihuly	Van Gogh	Michelangelo
	Rembrandt	Grandma Moses	Cassatt	Renoir	Cezanne	Rockwell

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