I’m Deborah Sampson by Patricia Clapp

Title: I’m Deborah Sampson
Author: Patricia Clapp
Publication: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., hardcover, 1977
Genre: Juvenile historical fiction
Setting: 18th century Massachusetts and New York

Description: In this historical novel about Deborah Sampson, the Massachusetts native who famously disguised herself as a man to fight in the Revolutionary War, Clapp provides a convincing background for Sampson’s decision to enlist and her ability to carry out such an improbable undertaking. Sampson’s family lived near Plymouth, Massachusetts, descended from famous Mayflower names that included John Alden and Myles Standish. But when Sampson’s widowed mother could not support her children, she parceled them out to families that would take them in. Equipped only with a rhyme about her forbears, Sampson learned household chores but was lonely and unhappy in these homes until she went to live with the Thomas family and their ten sons as a bound girl. Deborah, starved of affection her whole life, embraces life with this large and happy family and insists on learning all their skills, including how to shoot. All the sons eventually enlist to fight for their country against the British, and when the one she loves is killed, that is motivation for Deborah to borrow male clothing and enlist. Using the name Robert Shurtlieff, she actually served for more than two years before a fever sends her to a hospital and her gender is discovered. After the war, she married and had three children, and even went on a lecture tour to describe her military service, eventually earning a pension from the U.S. government.

My Impression: Patricia Clapp wrote a number of historical novels for young readers, the best known of which are Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth, and Jane-Emily, a haunting ghost story. I have read those multiple times but had never thought much about Deborah Sampson until my niece Tess told me earlier this month that she had created a triptych on Deborah Sampson for a school project. I immediately put this book on reserve at the library for her but it took so long to arrive that she had finished her presentation and moved on. As I was already thinking about books published in 1954, I might have returned the book unread (in fact, it was already in my car) when out of the blue on Tuesday, my friend Barb Fecteau told me she had been interested to learn the manuscript for I’m Deborah Sampson was in the de Grummond Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi.* “Wait, did I tell you about my niece’s project?” I asked, more taken aback than usually happens. To my surprise, Barb told me it was one of her favorite books and “very romantic.” Well, obviously, this coincidence meant I had to read it before sending it back to the Malden Library (which seems to keep its older books much longer than Boston and I congratulate it on this policy; glad I am helping its circulation policies).

Tess's project

As it turns out, the relationship between Deborah and the Thomas boys is a device Clapp used to account for the skills Deborah would have needed to handle army life and her motivation to enlist. Clapp also imagines ways in which Deborah could conceal her gender from the other soldiers that are somewhat plausible and Deborah guards her secret carefully, at one point digging a musket ball out of her own wound to avoid a doctor. I found the parts about her life as a neglected quasi-orphan and a hypothetical romance with Robbie Thomas more interesting than the military aspects of the story, but it was a fun read. If Clapp embroidered what is known of Sampson to give dimension and motivation to her story, the result is a winsome story. And someone other than Clapp is being creative with the facts known about Sampson – when I asked my niece how she knew purple was Sampson’s favorite color, she looked at me surprised and said she looked it up. Sure enough, some wiki-creature has decided it is so.

Sampson was honored during World War II when a warship was named the Deborah Sampson Gannett and launched in Maryland in 1944. It was dedicated to "the sole female soldier of the American Revolution."

This is my thirteenth book in the 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader. 

Source: Library

* Maybe I should have written my Capstone about Patricia Clapp instead of Tana Hoban? Too late, I turned it in on Thursday.