Liberty's Children: Stories of Eleven Revolutionary War Children - Paperback

by Scotti Cohn (Author)

When Americans think about the American Revolution, certain names come quickly to mind--George Washington, Paul Revere, and Samuel Adams. These men deserve to be remembered, yet their stories do not give us a clear picture of what life was like for the average person during the years before, during, and immediately after the war. Typical history books do not describe how a nine-year-old Massachusetts boy might have felt when his friend was killed in the Boston Massacre or what went through the mind of a teenage Quaker girl when her family fled Philadelphia. These are the kinds of stories you will find in this book. Many of these children not only survived the war but played an active role in it.

Back Jacket

Sometimes a war's greatest heroes are its survivors, those who manage to forge new lives despite the tragedy they have experienced. History books usually do not describe how a nine-year-old Massachusetts boy might have felt when his friend was killed in the Boston Massacre or what went through the mind of a teenage Quaker girl when her family fled Philadelphia. Children like these found themselves on the edge of the fray-both in combat and in the throes of daily life-helping, or simply enduring, as best their interrupted youths allowed. Their behind-the-scenes stories illustrate what it was really like for children during the Revolutionary War. Meet Frances Slocum, a five-year-old girl captured and raised by Native Americans; James Fortune, a free African American who at the age of fifteen enlisted on a government-commissioned ship; and Deborah Samson, who, at twenty, dressed in men's clothes and joined the Continental army. Learn the inspiring stories of American children who displayed courage, devotion, and wisdom during the colonies' fight for freedom.

Author Biography

Scotti McAuliff Cohn is a freelance writer and copy editor living and working in Bloomington, Illinois. She has written three other books for The Globe Pequot Press: More than Petticoats: Remarkable North Carolina Women, It Happened in North Carolina, and Beyond Their Years: Stories of Sixteen Civil War Children.