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Deborah Sampson

Writer's picture: Emma HammackEmma Hammack

The first woman to take a bullet for her country

Katherine Hammack 3/11/23


Deborah Sampson was an American hero. She was a true soldier and hard worker, yet barely anyone knows she existed. She fought in the Revolutionary War and accomplished many difficult tasks as a young woman. She disguised herself as a man to join the military and fight for her country, she was the only woman to earn a full military pension. This is her story.


Early Life

Sampson was born on December 17, 1760, in Plympton, Massachusetts to parents, Jonathan Sampson Jr. and Deborah Sampson. Sampson was one of seven children and grew up in great poverty. Her father abandoned his family for a life at sea when she was 5 years old, and he never returned. Her mother sent Deborah and her siblings to live with relatives until the age of 10 when she was forced to become a servant to the Thomas family in Middleborough, Massachusetts due to her family’s lack of money. Her relatives were financially incapable of taking care of her anymore, and her family split from her; she was all alone.


As an indentured servant to the Thomas family, she had to serve the family until she became eighteen years old. When she was set free, she became self-educated and worked as a teacher in the summers of 1779 and 1780 and as a weaver during the winters. However, yearning to do more for the Revolutionary War, in 1782 at the age of twenty-one, Sampson came up with a plan - to disguise herself as a man named Robert Shurtliff.


Accomplishments

Sampson registered in the Continental Army on May 23, 1782, as Mr. Robert Shurtliff, and was enlisted under the 4th Massachusetts Regiment. At West Point, New York, Sampson was assigned to Captain George Webbs Company of Light Infantry. She spent most of her time scouting the “Neutral Ground” to access the British buildup of men and material. In June of 1782, Sampson and 2 other Sergeants led an expedition/attack with approximately thirty infantrymen. This expedition ended quickly with a brutal fight with the Tories. Sampson was then appointed to lead a raid on the Tory home where she and her team captured about 15 enemy soldiers.


That’s not Sampson’s only accomplishment though; she dug trenches at the siege of Yorktown, helped siege a British redoubt, and she faced cannon fire in active fighting. After 2 years of serving in the army, during battle she suffered a massive gash on her forehead and was shot with a pistol in her left thigh (she extracted the bullet herself on the battlefield). She was also shot in the shoulder, but she did not want to reveal that she was a woman to the doctors who would have had to remove her shirt to fix the wound, so she left the bullet in her shoulder. In Philadelphia during the summer of 1783, Sampson, weakened by her prior injuries and being exhausted from overwork, fell ill during an epidemic. She was taken to the hospital unconscious, which is when her true gender was discovered. She received an honorable discharge and left the army.


Importance

Deborah Sampson proved that women can do what men can do. Even though she was a woman, she was able to fight in the Revolutionary War and endure major pain and trauma. She went through so much during the war, including fighting, being shot, and becoming ill, all while concealing her true identity. Sampson was truly a hero, even more so because she was a woman who rebelled against the constraints of her age. Sampson is significant because she was the first woman to ever earn a full military pension during the Revolutionary War. She had to disguise herself as a man because women were not seen as physically or temperamentally able to participate with men in the army. She played a significant part in the war, and she was truly a heroic woman who fought for the freedom of America, yet she is not taught in many school curricula. Most Americans do not know who she is, but she deserves to be recognized for what she did. She is one of the noteworthy representatives of gender equality in America.


Death

Sampson returned to Massachusetts after her discharge from the army in 1783. On April 7, 1783, she married Benjamin Gannet and had 3 children, Earl, Mary, and Patience. In 1802 she began a year-long lecture tour about her military experience, the first woman to do so dressing in her full formal military regalia. Sampson died 6 years later at the age of 66 from yellow fever.



Sources:

Michals, E. by D. (n.d.). Deborah Sampson. National Women's History Museum. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/deborah-sampson

Deborah Sampson. George Washington's Mount Vernon. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/deborah-sampson/

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