HoundsGood: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer

As you are out celebrating today, it is natural to think of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and the other framers of the Constitution. Since, as you know, I think volunteers rock, it was literally a cast of thousands who supported this grand idea and made our freedom possible.

Deborah Sampson took up about a paragraph or two in my grade school history book, but her curious story stuck with me all this time.

She was born into a poor family, having a father who was lost at sea (or at least that is what history has passed down). She was split up from her siblings, and grew up as an indentured servant, learning how to sew and shovel. Despite her modest existence, she eventually served a family that allowed her to attend school with their children, and she quickly became enthralled with politics.

At 18, she was free from service and so badly wanted to join the cause of Revolution that she disguised herself as a man and enlisted. She was a tall girl, and because of her servitude learned some of the skills and hard work men faced, so she felt she could hold her own. However, she feared that she would be recognized and joined the Continental Army a year later and used the name Robert Shurtliff, which was the name of a brother who had passed away in childhood before she was born.

She managed to keep her secret for several years until she became stricken with illness and was treated in a hospital. The bands that bound her breasts was discovered, but Dr. Barnabas Binney, who treated her kept the secret and brought her home, where she was further treated by he and his wife.

Later, Deborah married and had four children (one of which was adopted and an orphan like herself). She went on the lecture about her experiences, and the campaign for her army pension (though serving under a different name and gender) was successful and paved the way for women in the armed services.

I know it makes us scratch our heads today thinking nobody would have noticed. We let Shakespeare get away with it due to the dramatic contrast in attire, the miles and pounds of brocade that could easily obscure, that

What is the moral of the story? Excuse the butchering of a crude, yet popular phrase, but even if you don’t have a pot to…well…relieve yourself in, nor are wealthy enough to own a window to throw it out of, you can be very capable indeed. You may never make a paragraph in an HBJ reader, and no one may never know how you have made an impact on someone’s life, or at just knock yourself out of the “poor me” rut.

P.S. Fun Fact: Did you know that word has spread that George Washington had a pet parrot named Polly? You think he would have come up with a more original name, but perhaps he was being original at the time.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.