In Honor of July 4th

On this July 4th weekend in 2009, I'd like to honor our Founding Mothers as well as our Founding Fathers. Not only the obvious ones like Abigail Adams, but the lesser known ones, who are remembered mostly by the states they came from.

Ladies like Sybil Ludington, a 16 year, who as the oldest of 12 children was often in charge of her younger siblings. Her father was a general in the colony of New York. When word came that the British were burning Danbury, Connecticut on the evening of April 26, 1777, her father needed to call the militia to arms, even though they were scattered over a large area. Every soldier they had was needed and they didn't have cell phones in those days to text out the message. Sybil talked her father into letting her get the word out to their troops to come to Ludington near the Hudson River.

Sybil traveled 40 miles from 9PM till dawn with her horse Star and her father's musket, to protect her from highwaymen during her journey. She traveled twice the distance that Paul Revere traveled. By the time she returned home soaked with rain, there were 400 soldiers militiamen preparing to go to Danbury's defense. They came too late in that case, but they were able to force them back in the Battle of Ridgefield. After the war, Sybil married the lawyer Edmund Ogden and the couple had one son.


And then there's Deborah Sampson who left her life as an indentured servant to become a school teacher, thanks to her studies with the sons of the family she worked for. During the Revolutionary War she wanted to join the fight for liberty. She was tall for the times at around 5 feet 8 and had done the work of a man often during her young life while working as an indentured servant. She wanted to fight as a soldier, but women weren't allowed to serve in those days. So....she dressed as a man and joined the Continental Army in the state of Massachusetts on May 20, 1782.

Cornwallis had already surrendered, but there was still much guerrilla warfare going on and some places like New York City were still under the control of the British. Deborah saw several battles in her guise as Robert Shurtliff and when she received a head wound and musket shot to the thigh, she allowed the army hospital to tend to her head wound, but dug out the musket shot in her thigh with a pen knife rather than allow her secret to be discovered. The wound didn't heal well, but she fought on anyway. Her secret was finally discovered when she became very ill later. She was given an honorable discharge and some time after the war married Benjamin Gannett, with whom she had three children and adopted a fourth. She petitioned for back pay from the army with the help of Paul Revere and eventually received it. In the interim, she performed onstage lecturing about her experiences.



The third lady I'd like to remember today is Nancy Hart of Georgia. I've written a short story about her most famous exploit on Scribd. She stood 6 feet tall, had red hair, and crossed eyes. She was an excellent shot and her fearlessness earned her the name Wahatchee or War Woman with the local Indians. She cared for her homestead and youngest child while her husband and older sons fought with the local militia. She held off British soldiers singlehandedly. And even did some spy work dressed as a weak minded man in a British stronghold. She's a favorite daughter of Georgia and they've built her monuments and named towns after her.


The final lady I'd like to remember on this Independence Day weekend is Phillis Wheatley. She was a contemporary of the other ladies mentioned here, but her story is one of irony to the fight for liberty in that time.

She was brought to the American colonies as a slave at the age of 7 or 8. She was sold in Boston to John Wheatley as a personal servant for his wife Susanna. He named her after the slave schooner she arrived on. Wheatley's wife made sure of Phillis's education, which was against the ways of the time. She was a prodigy who took on English, literature, philosophy, and Latin seemingly without difficulty. The Wheatley family encouraged her, which was also unusual for the times and she began writing poetry and was published locally in the Newport Mercury at the age of 14 in 1767.


She was the first African American to be published and only the second woman. However, she was unable to get a volume of her poems published in the colonies despite her popularity with some of the Boston elite. In that time her ability to write poetry was basically an assault on slavery. When her book was published in London in 1773 with the help of Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingtom. It included a testament written and signed by 17 men of Boston swearing that Phillis Wheatley was a slave who had been born in Africa and that she had actually written the poems attributed to her.

The Wheatley's allowed her to travel to London with their son on business, where she became the toast of Europe and met such men as Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire. The trip was cut short, however, when word came that Susanna Wheatley was ill. Some where around the time of Susanna's death Phillis was given her freedom, either because of the death of her mistress, or because of her popularity in international circles. She continued to stay with the Wheatley's for some time and started writing poetry more geared to independence for the colonies, which didn't go down well in some circles. Because she was a former slave, her poems about freedom had a double meaning which many could not accept. She composed a famous poem to George Washington at that time and even met him in March of 1776.

Shortly after she married a free African American businessman by the name of John Peters. He either had the same lack of ability for business as did Deborah Sampson's husband. Or his race limited his options. The couple were barely able to scrape together a living. The Revolutionary War didn't help. It made times difficult for everyone and there was little time or interest in poetry. Phillis tried unsuccessfully to publish again, except for a few pamphlets. She lauded George Washington's promotion to the head of the American forces and dedicated some poems to him.

Near the time of her death, Phillis worked as a part time teacher and served as a domestic servant. Her first two children died and her husband abandoned her while she was expecting their third. She died in 1784 of childbirth complications about a year after the American Revolution officially ended. Her child died shortly after. She was around 30 years old.

Each in their own way, these 4 women and many others contributed to the freedom which we all enjoy today. I want to make sure that we honor them.