Deborah Sampson's Role In The Revolutionary War

Deborah Sampson was one out of the many women who helped win the American Revolutionary War.Deborah Sampson is famous for disguising herself as a man so that she could serve in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
Deborah was born on December 17, 1760 in Plympton, Massachusetts to colonial parents Jonathan Sampson and Deborah Bradford Sampson. Deborah was the oldest out of the seven children (Jonathan, Elisha, Hannah, Ephraim, Nehemiah and Sylvia). Her family lived in poverty due to the lack of business skills. Deborah and her family lived in Plympton, Massachusetts while she was young, but her father abandoned the family, she was sent to live with a relative, and she began working at a young age. 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.
At the age of 21, Deborah wanted to serve in the War for Independence. Since women were not allowed to enlist, she disguised herself as a man. Her physical characteristics helped her disguise her gender. She had a muscular build, and her limbs were strong and well proportioned. Her chest was small, so she could easily bind them with a cloth. Her lack of facial hair did not give her away, since recruiters were signing up adolescents who were too young to grow beards. To make herself seem more of a man dressed in male clothing, she, for a fact, risked anything to not be exposed of her true identity.
Deborah Sampson married Benjamin Gannett on April 7, 1785. They had three children: Earl (1786), Mary (1788) and Patience (1790). This family of five, too, was cursed with poverty.
In 1813, her son Earl married Mary Clark and built a beautiful mansion which Deborah also lived in during her final years(still standing today at 300 East Street in Sharon).
Sadly, Deborah Sampson died on April 29, 1827, in Sharon, Massachusetts, at the age of 66 of yellow fever. She was buried in nearby Rock Ridge Cemetery. Her gravestone is located a short distance from the hill her grandson, George Washington Gay, erected a monument to her and the Civil War veterans many years later.