Liberty's Children: Stories of Eleven Revolutionary War Children

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Who are your heroes of the American Revolution? Most people think of individuals like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, John Paul Jones, or Samuel Adams. These are among the most famous, but there are others who are less well-known. Did you know that some of them were actually children? One example is John Greenwood, whose friend was killed in the Boston Massacre and who at age fifteen fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Another was twenty-year-old Deborah Samson, who enlisted in the Continental army claiming to be Robert Shurtlieff, a fifteen-year-old boy, and was awarded an invalid pension for injuries sustained in combat. Still another was James Durham, a thirteen-year-old African American boy who had been the slave of a Tory doctor and learned to mix medicines. Then there were Frances Slocum who was captured and raised by Native Americans, and James Forten, a free black who served on a colonial government-commissioned ship. Liberty’s Children tells the stories of eleven young people whose lives were caught up in the American Revolution. Not only did most of them survive the war but also many of them took an active role in it. Thus the book gives youngsters a clearer picture of what life was like for ordinary children in the years before, during, and after the war. When I picked it up and looked at it while visiting in the bookstore at Valley Forge National Park in Pennsylvania, it appeared quite interesting, but my decision to buy it was confirmed when I saw the author’s name. I have read and reviewed other great books by Scotti Cohn, and she is an excellent writer. There are a few references to drinking beer, rum, and whiskey, which of course are simply reported as historical events. I do appreciate the fact that in one quote where a British soldier cursed, it was written “d��"-d” rather than being spelled out. And I found it especially noteworthy that for at least some of the children, it is specifically stated that they received their education at home. This would make an excellent accompaniment for a homeschool study of the American Revolution. Another similar book by Cohn is Beyond Their Years: Stories of Sixteen Civil War Children.