The Revolutionary Era Biography

The Revolutionary Era Biography

Crispus Attucks

c. 1723–1770

Very little is known about the life of Crispus Attucks until the day he died. Historians are not sure whether he was African American or Native American, but many believe he was of mixed ancestry, possibly from a group of Natick Indians who converted to Christianity in the seventeenth century. It is also believed that he may have been a slave. A notice in the Boston Gazette in 1750 sought out a young runaway slave that may have been Attucks: “Ran away from his Master, William Brown of Framingham on the 30th of September last, a mulatto fellow about twenty-seven years of age, named Crispus, 6 feet 2 inches high, short curled hair, his knees nearer together than common.”

Other reports indicate that Attucks may have been a sailor on a whaling ship. One account puts Attucks as a crewman on a whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, that was docked in BostonHarbor when a group of colonists began taunting British soldiers marching the city’s streets.

The British Parliament had imposed a number of taxes on the colonies in order to raise funds and keep the colonies profitable for Britain. The Stamp Act required a stamp on nearly all paper products; the Sugar Act placed levies on sugar; and the Tea Act sought to force colonists to buy tea from British, rather than Dutch, traders. Without a voice in Parliament, the colonists felt the taxes were unfair, and as each new tax was instituted, colonial anger grew.

On the evening of March 5, 1770, a group of angry colonists started mocking and jeering at a group of British soldiers on patrol in Boston. Attucks, by then 47 years old, was probably having dinner at an inn when the scuffle broke out. Reports say that Attucks led a group of sailors, all gathering sticks along the way to use as weapons, to the commotion. John Adams described Attucks as “a stout fellow, whose very looks were enough to terrify any person.”

Some witnesses said that Attucks tried to grab a bayonet carried by one of the British soldiers, and that struggle led to the British opening fire on the colonists. Other witnesses said Attucks was innocent, killed while leaning on his cordwood stick. Whatever his role in the incident, Attucks was the first to die, struck by two bullets in the chest. Four other colonists were killed in the attack as well. Colonial leaders accused the British soldiers of firing on innocent civilians.

Attucks’s body lay in state in Boston’s Faneuil Hall for three days. Then it, along with the bodies of three other victims, was taken by a funeral procession of some 10,000 or more to a cemetery where they were buried.

The British soldiers who fired on the crowd were tried for murder. All except two were let off, and the two who were convicted were given light punishment. The incident fueled colonial anger toward the British. Colonial leaders began sharing with each other news of British injustices and abuses. The colonies were beginning to unite on a path that would lead to revolution.

Considered by many the first martyr of the American Revolution for his determination to stand against the British, Attucks has been memorialized with a statue on the Boston Common.

The Revolutionary Era Biography

Deborah Sampson

1760–1827

Even before the American Revolution, many American colonists had mixed feelings toward Britain. Some remained loyal to their mother country. Others supported rebellion no matter what the cost. When the colonies finally declared their independence, Deborah Sampson joined the Continental Army to fight for the newborn country.

Deborah Sampson was born in 1760 in Plympton, Massachusetts. Her family was related to one of the first Pilgrim settlers. Her father was lost at sea when she was five. Because her mother was sick and the family lived in poverty, Sampson was sent to live with a female relative.

After several years Sampson became an indentured servant for a family in Middleborough, Massachusetts. There she learned how to read and write, and mastered many other skills. When her service was completed in 1779, she became a teacher.

In 1782 Sampson dressed in men’s clothes and enlisted in the Massachusetts militia using the name Timothy Thayer. She was soon caught, discharged, and forced to pay a fine. Her capture did not discourage her. She enlisted in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment using the name Robert Shurtleff, and marched with the troops toward West Point, New York.

Sampson served as a soldier for a year and a half. During that time, she fought in many battles. In a battle near Tarrytown, New York, she was wounded in the thigh. She didn’t want anyone to find out that she was a woman, so she removed a musket ball from her leg by herself. She then continued to serve in the Continental Army.

While serving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1783, Sampson came down with a severe fever. Dr. Barnabas Binney discovered that she was a woman while treating her. He kept her secret and arranged with Gen. Henry Knox for a discreet discharge from further military service.

In 1784 Sampson married Benjamin Gannett, a farmer. They had threechildren. She lectured in New England and New York on her experience asa woman in the military, and published her wartime stories.

Sampson petitioned the state of Massachusetts and Congress for a pension based on her service. Her friend Paul Revere, the famous rider who warned the troops that the British were coming, wrote letters on her behalf. Both the state and federal governments gave her the pension she had earned. When she died, her husband wrote to Congress asking for additional help because he was a widower. He died before he received an answer, but the money eventually went to her three children.

Sampson is considered an American Joan of Arc, the peasant-turned heroine who led the French to victory during the Hundred Years’ War. Sampson believed in the American cause and served with pride. She is remembered as an American war hero.

The Revolutionary Era Biography

Robert R. Livingston

1746–1813

Robert R. Livingston was born into a wealthy New York City family in 1746. He studied law at King’s College (now ColumbiaUniversity) and was admitted to the bar in 1770.

A strong supporter of liberty and independence, Livingston was named a delegate to the Continental Congress representing New York. He provided a knowledgeable voice on financial and legal issues. When the Continental Congress met in 1776, after fighting had already begun between colonists and British troops, delegates were strongly bent toward breaking with England. After efforts to heal the rift with England had failed, they created a committee of five to draft what became the Declaration of Independence.

Livingston was a member of that committee, reviewing the first draft (written by Thomas Jefferson) and agreeing on a draft to present to the Continental Congress as a whole. Unfortunately, Livingston was recalled to New York before the Declaration was completed; otherwise, he surely would have been one of the signers. Livingston’s participation in colonial affairs continued after the Revolution. He was appointed the new nation’s first secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs. He helped to draft the New York State Constitution and was given the highest judicial post in the state, that of chancellor of New York. He pushed for New York to ratify the United States Constitution, and in 1789 he swore in George Washington as the new nation’s first president.

In 1801 President Thomas Jefferson appointed Livingston to represent the United States in France at the court of Napoleon. Livingston served as minister for three years, during which he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase from the French in 1803.

During his retirement, Robert Livingston became an enthusiastic patron of American inventor Robert Fulton, who refined the steam engine and operated the first passenger steamboat service on the Hudson River. Fulton named his first steamboat Clermont in honor of Livingston’s ancestral home.

Livingston died 1813 at the age of 66. He is considered an important U.S. diplomat who played a key role in politics during the nation’s early years. A statue recognizing his accomplishments stands in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The Revolutionary Era Biography

Haym Salomon

c. 1740–1785

The son of a rabbi, Haym Salomon (sometimes known as Solomon) was born in 1740 in Lissa, Poland. As a young man, he traveled widely inEurope, learning most European languages. It is believed that he leftPoland sometime after 1764 and arrived in New York City in theearly 1770s.

Salomon established himself as a commission merchant in New YorkCity, buying and selling goods for customers for a fee. After theRevolutionary War started, Salomon stayed in New York and was arrestedby the British. He was paroled and released to a German general whoneeded an aide. While working for the German mercenary army, Salomonoperated his own business and married and fathered a son.

Salomon remained a faithful Patriot, willing to risk his life for therevolution. Speaking with German mercenary soldiers in German so theBritish soldiers could not understand, he persuaded the mercenaries todefect. Salomon also helped French and American prisoners escape, oftengiving them money to help them flee.

Eventually, the British discovered Salomon’s secret activities. He wouldprobably have been executed if he had not escaped. He fled New York in1778, leaving his wife and son and everything he owned behind.

Salomon headed to Philadelphia where he tried unsuccessfully to get ajob from the Continental Congress. Penniless, Salomon was forced to startover, which he did, building up a new business as a commission merchant.He eventually brought his wife and son to Philadelphia.

Only three years later, Salomon was one of the leading dealers in bills ofexchange, a document similar to today’s personal check. Buying andselling these bills, Haym Salomon was paid a fee for his services. Becausehe was fluent in so many different languages, he got business from theSpanish, French, and Dutch governments.

Eventually Salomon’s skills gained the attention of Robert Morris, theContinental Congress’s superintendent of finance. He needed help to fundthe Yorktown campaign. Salomon arranged the financing for theContinental Army and handled the bills of exchange, carefully managingtheir sale on the market to ensure that each sold for the highest valuepossible. Because so much money passed through Salomon’s hands, peoplelong believed, incorrectly, that he had funded the Revolution himself.

But Salomon was generous with his own money, too, loaning and oftengiving money to members of Congress. An observant Jew as well as aPatriot, Salomon helped fund the first synagogue built in Philadelphia andsupported Jewish charities.

Salomon died in 1785 from an illness, possibly tuberculosis, that was believed to have developed during his imprisonment by the British. Hisdeath put his family in financial trouble because most of his money wastied up in government notes and securities. These had to be sold quickly tosettle his estate. They sold at such low prices there was nothing left for hisfamily.

Though Salomon’s own money was practically gone when he died, his genius is credited with helping the Patriots achieve victory in theRevolutionary War.

The Revolutionary Era Biography

Francis Marion

c. 1732–1795

The British expected to win the Revolutionary War quickly. When it was obvious that the colonists would not end their rebellion easily, the British shifted their strategy, turning to the South, where they believed Loyalists would come to their aid. What they encountered instead were bands of fierce Patriots who struck quickly and then disappeared into the woods and swamps. The most famous of these Patriot fighters was Francis Marion.

The son of a South Carolina planter, Marion Francis was the youngest of six children. At age 16 Marion left his father’s plantation for the sea. On a return voyage from the West Indies, his ship was rammed by a whale and Marion spent the next week in a small boat waiting to be rescued. He swore off the sea forever and moved back to his father’s plantation in South Carolina. Later he bought his own land, which he called Pond Bluff.

Marion enlisted in the colonial militia in 1756. Several years later, he distinguished himself in a battle against members of the Cherokee nation by leading 30 men against the enemy’s main position.

When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, Marion was elected to the provincial congress of South Carolina. He became a captain in the Continental Army, and after helping capture FortJohnson, was promoted to major. Over the next few years, Marion continued to serve in key positions, often protecting Charleston, South Carolina, from the British. When Charleston finally fell to the British, Marion was at home recuperating from a broken ankle and so avoided capture on the battlefield.

By 1780 Marion’s troop was one of the only Patriot forces remaining in South Carolina. Too small to face the British head-on, Marion’s forces concentrated on guerrilla raids to disrupt enemy communications, capture supplies, and free prisoners. Because his militiamen emerged from the swamp, attacked quickly, and disappeared back into the swamp before the victims could respond, Marion was nicknamed Swamp Fox by the British.

After the war, Marion served as a member of the South Carolina Senate until 1791. He also served as a delegate to the state Constitutional Convention. Marion died at his plantation in 1795 and was buried in the family graveyard at his father’s plantation.

Biography

Revolution Edition