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 Boston Harbor 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 three
children. She lectured in New England and New York on her experience as a 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 Columbia University) 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 in Europe, learning
most European languages. It is believed that he left Poland sometime after 1764 and
arrived in New York City in the early 1770s.
Salomon established himself as a commission merchant in New York City,
buying and selling goods for customers for a fee. After the Revolutionary War
started, Salomon stayed in New York and was arrested by the British. He was
paroled and released to a German general who needed an aide. While working for
the German mercenary army, Salomon operated his own business and married and
fathered a son.
Salomon remained a faithful Patriot, willing to risk his life for the revolution.
Speaking with German mercenary soldiers in German so the British soldiers could
not understand, he persuaded the mercenaries to defect. Salomon also helped
French and American prisoners escape, often giving them money to help them flee.
Eventually, the British discovered Salomon’s secret activities. He would
probably have been executed if he had not escaped. He fled New York in 1778,
leaving his wife and son and everything he owned behind.
Salomon headed to Philadelphia where he tried unsuccessfully to get a job
from the Continental Congress. Penniless, Salomon was forced to start over, 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 of
exchange, a document similar to today’s personal check. Buying and selling these
bills, Haym Salomon was paid a fee for his services. Because he was fluent in so
many different languages, he got business from the Spanish, French, and Dutch
governments.
Eventually Salomon’s skills gained the attention of Robert Morris, the
Continental Congress’s superintendent of finance. He needed help to fund the
Yorktown campaign. Salomon arranged the financing for the Continental Army and
handled the bills of exchange, carefully managing their sale on the market to ensure
that each sold for the highest value possible. Because so much money passed
through Salomon’s hands, people long believed, incorrectly, that he had funded the
Revolution himself.
But Salomon was generous with his own money, too, loaning and often giving
money to members of Congress. An observant Jew as well as a Patriot, Salomon
helped fund the first synagogue built in Philadelphia and supported Jewish charities.
Salomon died in 1785 from an illness, possibly tuberculosis, that was
believed to have developed during his imprisonment by the British. His death put his
family in financial trouble because most of his money was tied up in government
notes and securities. These had to be sold quickly to settle his estate. They sold at
such low prices there was nothing left for his family.
Though Salomon’s own money was practically gone when he died, his genius
is credited with helping the Patriots achieve victory in the Revolutionary 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 Fort Johnson, 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.
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