Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson
Born	(1760-12-17)December 17, 1760 Plymouth, Massachusetts
Died	April 29, 1827(1827-04-29) (aged 66) Sharon, Massachusetts
Spouse	Benjamin Gannett
Children	Earl Mary Patience Susanna (adopted)

Deborah Sampson Gannett ( December 17, 1760 – April 29, 1827), better known as Deborah Sampson, was a woman who disguised herself as a man in order to serve in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. She is part of a small number of women with a documented record of military combat experience in that war. She served 17 months in the army, as "Robert Shurtliff " of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, was wounded in 1782 and honorably discharged at West Point, New York in 1783.

Deborah Sampson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts, a small village in the county of Plymouth, Massachusetts, on December 17 , 1760. She was the oldest of seven children born to Jonathan Sampson, Jr. and Deborah Bradford Sampson, both of old Colonial stock. Her mother was a descendant of William Bradford, once Governor of Plymouth Colony. Her siblings were Jonathan, Elisha, Hannah, Ephraim, Nehemiah, and Sylvia. When Deborah’s father failed to return from a sea voyage, her mother, unable to provide for her children, placed them in various households. She was first placed in the home of her aunt, who died shortly thereafter. Afterwards, she was placed in the home of the widow of Reverend Peter Thatcher until 1770, when she was removed to the home of Deacon Jeremiah Thomas, at the age of ten. Deacon Thomas had a farm in Middleborough, MA and a large family, with ten sons. At age 18, when her time as an indentured servant was over, the self-educated Deborah made a living by teaching school during the summer sessions in 1779 and 1780 and by weaving in the winter.

Wars and battles

She first had the idea of enlisting in the army as a Continental soldier. Women were not allowed to do this, so she disguised herself as a man. She had little difficulty passing as a man because she was five feet seven inches in height, which was tall for a woman. On May 20, 1782, she successfully enlisted in the army on the muster of Master Noah Taft of Uxbridge, under the name of her deceased brother, Robert Shurtleff Sampson, and gave his/her residence as Uxbridge, Massachusetts. Her signature still exists in the Massachusetts records. At this time, her mother was trying to get Sampson to marry a wealthy suitor but declined to continue in the army.

Sampson was chosen for the Light Infantry Company of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment under the command of Captain George Webb. The unit, consisting of fifty to sixty men, was first quartered in Bellingham, Massachusetts and later the unit mustered at Worcester under the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Colonel Shepard.

Sampson fought in several skirmishes. During her first battle, on July 3, 1782, outside Tarrytown, New York, she took two musket balls in her thigh and a gigantic cut on her forehead. She begged her fellow soldiers to let her die and not take her to the hospital, but they refused to abandon her. A soldier put her on his horse, and they took her to a hospital. The doctors treated her head wound, but she left the hospital before they could attend to the musket balls. Fearful that her true identity would be discovered, she removed one of the balls herself with a penknife and sewing needle, but her leg never fully healed because the other musket ball was too deep for her to reach. On April 1, 1783, she was promoted and spent seven months serving as a waiter to General John Paterson.

After the Treaty of Paris (1783) was signed, the war was thought to be over. However, on June 24, the President of Congress ordered George Washington to send a fleet of soldiers to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to aid in squelching a rebellion of several American officers. During the summer of 1783, Sampson came down with malignant fever and was cared for by a doctor, Barnabas Binney. He removed her clothes to treat her and discovered the cloth she used to bind her breasts and, thus, discovered her secret. He did not betray her; he took her to his house, where his wife, daughters, and a nurse by the name of Mrs. Parker housed and took care of her.

After Sampson recovered, she returned to the army. In September 1783, peace was assured through the signing of the Treaty of Paris. November 3 was the date for the soldiers to be sent home. When Dr. Binney asked her to deliver a note to General John Paterson, she thought that her secret was out. However, General Henry Knox awarded her an honorable discharge from the service, a note with some words of advice, and a sum of money sufficient to cover her expenses home. She was discharged from the Army on October 25, 1783 at West Point, NY, after a year and a half of service. She then boarded a ship from New York City to Providence and walked to Massachusetts.

Marriage

Statue of Sampson at Sharon, Massachusetts public library

Deborah was married in Stoughton, Massachusetts to Benjamin Gannett (1761–1827), a farmer from Sharon, Massachusetts, on April 7, 1785. They had three children: Earl (1786), Mary (1788) and Patience (1790), as well as Susanna Baker Shepard, an adopted orphan. Although they had a routine family life living on a farm, the family suffered from mild poverty.

Final years and death

Eight years later, in January 1792, Sampson petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature for pay which the army had withheld from her because she was a woman. Her petition passed through the Senate and was approved, then signed by Governor John Hancock. The General Court of Massachusetts verified her service and wrote that she "exhibited an extraordinary instance of female heroism by discharging the duties of a faithful gallant soldier, and at the same time preserving the virtue and chastity of her sex, unsuspected and unblemished". The court awarded her a total of 34 pounds plus interest, dating back to her discharge on October 25, 1783.

Ten years later, in 1802, Sampson began giving lectures about her experiences in the war. She would start her lecture extolling the virtues of traditional gender roles for women. Toward the end of her presentations she would leave the stage and return dressed in her army uniform. In uniform she would perform complicated and physically taxing military drills. These speeches were initiated because of her financial needs and a desire to justify her enlistment. But even with these speaking engagements, she was not making enough money to pay her expenses. She had to borrow money from her family and from her friend Paul Revere on many occasions. Revere also helped her write letters, which helped her begin to receive pension from the government starting in 1805.

In 1804, Paul Revere wrote to Massachusetts Representative William Eustis on Sampson's behalf. Revere requested that Congress grant her a military pension. This had never before been requested by or for a woman, but with her health failing and her family destitute, the money was greatly needed. Revere wrote, "I have been induced to enquire her situation, and character, since she quit the male habit, and soldiers uniform; for the more decent apparel of her own gender...humanity and justice obliges me to say, that every person with whom I have conversed about her, and it is not a few, speak of her as a woman with handsome talents, good morals, a dutiful wife, and an affectionate parent." On March 11, 1805, Congress in Washington obliged the letter, and placed her on the Massachusetts Invalid Pension Roll. This pension plan paid her four dollars a month.

On February 22, 1806, she found herself in even more financial trouble, so she wrote once more to Revere asking for a loan of ten dollars. Part of her letter read, "My own indisposition and that of my sons causes me again to solicit your goodness in our favor though I, with Gratitude, confess it rouses every tender feeling and I blush at the thought of receiving ninety and nine good turns as it were, my circumstances require that I should ask the hundredth." He sent the ten dollars.

In 1809, she sent another petition to Congress, asking that her pension as an invalid soldier, given to her in 1804, commence with the time of her discharge, in 1783. Had her petition been approved, she would have been awarded $960, to be divided into $48 a year for twenty years. However, it was denied until 1816, when her petition came before Congress again. This time, they approved her petition, awarding her $76.80 a year. With this amount, she was able to repay all her loans and take better care of the family farm. She died on April 29, 1827 at the age of 66 of Yellow fever and was buried in Rock Ridge Cemetery in the town of Sharon, Massachusetts.

Her long and ultimately successful public campaign for the American Revolutionary War pension bridged gender differences in asserting the sense of entitlement felt by all of the veterans who had fought for their country.

In 1916, Herman Mann published a book entitled "The Female Review." The work is a biography of Deborah Sampson

Sharon, Massachusetts now memorializes Sampson with Deborah Sampson Day (May 23), Deborah Sampson Street, a Deborah Sampson Statue in front of the public library, Deborah Sampson Field, and the Deborah Sampson House.

See also

• Eleonore Prochaska
• Agustina de Aragón
• Molly Pitcher
• Molly Corbin
• John Hancock

References and sources

References

• Bohrer, Melissa Lukeman. Glory, Passion, and Principle: The Story of Eight Remarkable Women at the Core of the American Revolution. New York: Atria Books, 2003. ISBN 0-743-45330-1 OCLC 52097551
• Keiter, Jane. "Deborah Sampson (1760-1827)." Education & Resources. National Women's History Museum, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
• Leonard, Elizabeth D. All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1999. ISBN 0-393-04712-1 OCLC 40543151
• McGovern, Ann, and Harold Goodwin. The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson. New York: Scholastic Inc, 1975. ISBN 0-590-32176-5 OCLC 13190829 Intended for juvenile audiences.
• Young, Alfred Fabian. Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0-679-44165-4 OCLC 52079888

Sources

External links

• "Deborah Sampson". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
• Canton (Massachusetts) Historical Society Deborah Samson [sic] Retrieved 2012-04-15.