Deborah+Sampson

Deborah Sampson was the first known American woman to impersonate a man in oder to join the army. She was born in Plympton Massachusetts on December 17 1760 as the oldest of four other childern .Deborah's mother was sick and poor.Deborah's father left home to sail the seas in search of adventure. Now he is dead he drowned in a shipwreck at sea. Deborah's mother had to give deborah and her other childern away. Deborah was like her father because they both wanted adventure. Deborah was only five years old when she had to leave her mother. It was the year 1765 ten years before the Revolutionary War. Deborah was sent to live with Mss.Fuller a cousin of her mother. Miss.Fuller loved Deborah. Miss.Fuller taught her how to spin and weave,and how to make bread.She gave Deborah wonderful hours of reading lessons. Deborah learned the alphabet by heart. For three years Deborah was happpy.The one day Miss.Fuller became ill.Three days later she was dead.She had been a mother to Debroah.Deborah was eight years old and without a home.Her own mother was still too sick to take care of her.Deborah was living in a farm she worked really hard she learnd how to sew and spin.She learned how to hunt,ride horses,and evan do carpenter work.Deborah learned so well later she became a teacher.During the Revolutionary War she wanted to help,but they didn't allow the girls to join the army.Deborah deiced she could join the army if she pretended to be a man.She practiced walking and talking like a man. Deborah was sent to West Point New York where she was wound on her head and leg in a battle near Tarrytown.She tried to fix her own wounds so that no one would know her secret.Deborah's leg never healed right.However when she was tookin to the hospital for a fever in Philadelphia the Doctor atended her and found out that Robert Shurtleff was a women and that was the end of her military career.Deborah was tookin out of the army at West Point on October 25 1783 by General Henry Knox.Deborah Sampson returned home married he was a famer named Benjamin Gannett and had three childern.She also taught at a near by school.She had two girls and a boy.Then Deborah took in baby Susanna whose mother died.She raised Susanna as if she was her very own.

Sources- kol.com,The secert soldrie.