Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson was born in 1760. When she was a child, her father died at sea and her mother sent all of her family away. Her mother could not take care of her children because they did not have enough money. After Deborah was sent away, she worked as a servant on a farm. She learned to sew, spin, hunt, ride a horse and she could even do carpentry work. She loved to learn, and she begged the men in the family to teach her new things. Deborah learned so much from them that she later became a teacher. She wanted to help the men in the American Revolution; she could not, because back then women were not allowed to fight in the war. Deborah knew that in order to help in the war, she would have to pretend to be a man. She practiced acting like a man and finally she was ready to fight with the soldiers. She enlisted in the army and thought up a new name for herself: Robert Shurtleff. She was five feet and seven inches tall, which was tall for a woman, but her fellow soldiers simply thought that she was a short boy. They teased Deborah because "Robert" did not have to shave. She was a brave soldier and volunteered for dangerous missions. The other soldiers were proud of "Robert." Deborah became an aide to the general. "Robert" served the general his meals. Everything was going smoothly until she got wounded in the head and leg. She let the doctor treat her head injury, but not her leg. If the doctor had treated her leg, she would have been found out! She took out the bullet in her leg by herself. Her leg never healed all the way, but her secret was safe. Deborah was afraid that if the other soldiers found out that "Robert" was a girl that they would shoot her. Later, Deborah became sick with a fever and was put in the hospital. The doctor found out her secret--which "Robert" was a woman. The doctor took her to his home to recover from her illness. The army gave her an honorable discharge after they learned her secret. After