Liberty's Children : Stories of Eleven Revolutionary War Children

by Cohn, Scotti

• ISBN13: 9780762727346
• ISBN10: 0762727349
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-01
• Publisher: Globe Pequot

Summary

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.

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vi
Introduction	p. vii
The Greatest Terror and Confusion	p. 1
An Actor in the Scenes of War	p. 13
No Safety for You Here	p. 25
Worthy of the Praise	p. 37
A Spirit Warm and Bold	p. 45
Not Born to Be Drowned	p. 57
Troublesome Times	p. 67
So Tired, So Sad, and So Scared	p. 77
With Liberty for All	p. 89
Prepare to Hear Amazing Things	p. 101
Almost beyond Endurance	p. 113
Bibliography	p. 125
Index	p. 133
About the Author	p. 136
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Christopher Hawkins grabbed the rail as the Eagle heaved and lurched under his feet. Another salty wave smacked his face. The thirteen-year-old Rhode Island boy had spent the past five months getting his sea legs. Now he wondered whether those legs would continue to hold him upright. Even the more experienced sailors were sliding across the slick deck.

The storm blasted the Eagle throughout the evening and into the next day. The second night, the crew had to throw six of the heaviest cannons overboard to lighten the vessel. There was nothing to eat or drink on deck except bad water. As evening drew near again, some of the crew asked Captain Mawry Potter if there was any food down below. He told them Christopher, the cabin boy, would know best.

Crew members opened the hatch and helped Christopher down into the companionway--a stairway leading to the deck below. He gathered as much food and drink as he could find, and the sailors hauled him up again.

"This was a very small meal for each of the crew when divided," Christopher wrote years later in his memoirs. "And nothing else could be obtained through the dismal and painful night ensuing -- the gale was hard so that ev'ry one was either lashed to some part of the vessel, or clung to some of her rigging -- no one slept."

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Excerpted from Liberty's Children: Stories of Eleven Revolutionary War Children by Scotti Cohn
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.