Forge Vocabulary and Quotes
Vocabulary
Chapter 3
indentured; -noun a person who signs and is bound by indentures to work for another for a specified time.
“I was indentured when I was your age.”
addlepated; –adjective being mixed up.
“This one looks simple. Is she addlepated?”
insolence; –noun the quality or state of being insolent (insultingly contemptuous in speech or conduct).
“Insolence will not be tolerated, not one bit.”
Chapter 5
Pennyroyal; -noun a European perennial mint with small aromatic leaves.
“Someone had planted a garden there, and the first plants had come up: peas, cabbage, and pennyroyal.”
Chapter 7
cistern; -noun an artificial reservoir (as an underground tank) for storing liquids and especially water (as rainwater).
“A large plot stretched behind it with a cistern, a privy, a poor excuse for a garden, and at the far end, a carriage house and small stable.”
Chapter 9
sustenance; –noun a supplying or being supplied with the necessaries of life.
“Oh, Good. Sustenance,” he said, pushing aside a stack of newspapers to clear off the desk.
Chapter 15
strangulated; –verb to become constricted so as to stop.
“Yes, sir.” My voice strangulated a bit.
queue; -noun a braid of hair usually worn hanging at the back of the head.
“His own hair was dark, pulled back into a neat queue, and tied with a string.”
Chapter 17
epaulets; –noun something that ornaments or protects the shoulder.
“The captain said something that we couldn’t hear, then he pulled the sword from his scabbard, and sliced the epaulets off Hickey’s shoulders.”
Chapter 25
dysentery; -noun a disease characterized by severe diarrhea with passage of mucus and blood and usually caused by infection.
“There were outbreaks of camp fever, smallpox, and dysentery amongst the rebel troops.”
Chapter 30
brainpan; -noun the cranium enclosing the brain
“My bones were hollow sticks; my brainpan empty.”
Chapter 33
victuals; -noun food or provisions for human beings.
“Whilst they plotted Washington’s downfall, I dozed in a chair in the hallway in case they needed victuals or a bottle of port.”
Chapter 37
caterwauling; -intransitive verb to make a harsh cry.
“There’ll be no more brawling or caterwauling in this kitchen.”
Chapter 40
passel; -noun a large amount.
“Washington’s troops chased the British from the battlefield, killed a passel of them, and took a couple of hundred prisoners.”
pestilence; -noun a contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating.
“Not until this pestilence has left my lungs.”
Chapter 41
farthings; -noun a former British monetary unit equal to ¼ of a penny.
“I’d heard of other slaves who bought their freedom, folks who were given Sunday afternoons to work for themselves, who saved their pennies and farthings for years and years until they had piled up the hundred and fifty or two hundred pounds to buy their body and soul from their master.”
Chapter Quotes
Prelude: “We have it in our power to begin the world over again. … The birth-day of a new world is at hand.”—quoting Thomas Paine’s February 1776 revision of Common Sense
Nash, Gary B., The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America, Viking, New York, NY, 2005, p. 209.
- “Begin the game.”— Gen. Horatio Gates’ order to start to the Second Battle of Saratoga.
Ketchum, Richard M., Saratoga; Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War, Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1997, p. 394. - “I heard Bullets whistle and believe me, there is something charming in the sound” —Letter from 22-year-old George Washington to his brother, John Augustine, describing his first taste of battle in 1754.
Ellis, Joseph J., His Excellency: George Washington, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2004, p. 15. - “Saw sev’ral Dead & naked men lying dead in ye woods close by, or Even where ye battle was fought.”— Journal of Private Ezra Tilden after the Second Battle of Saratoga
Cox, Caroline, A Proper Sense of Honor: Service and Sacrifice in George Washington’s Army, The University of North Carolina Press, Raleigh, NC, 2004, p 194. - “But when I saw liberty poles and the people all engaged for the support of freedom, I could not but like and be pleased with such thing… These considerations induced me to enlist into the American army, where I served faithfully about ten months, when my master found and took me home.” —Pension application of Jehu Grant, a Rhode Island slave who escaped to fight for the Patriots
Raphael, Ray, A People’s History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence, HarperCollins, New York, NY, 2002, pp. 361 – 362. - “But we who had Something more at Stake than fighting for six Pence per Day kept our ground til Night…” —Journal of New Hampshire Major Henry Dearborn
Dearborn, Henry, eds. Brown, Lloyd A. and Peckham, Howard H., Revolutionary War Journals of Henry Dearborn, 1775-1783, 1939. Chicago: The Caxton Club, 1939; reprinted Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 1994, p. 106. - “The courage and obstinacy with which the Americans fought were the astonishment of everyone, and we now become fully convinced they are not that contemptible enemy we had hitherto imagined them,”— British Ensign Thomas Anburey after the Battle of Saratoga
Ketchum, Richard M., Saratoga; Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War, Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1997, p. 369. - “I Trust we have Convincd the British Butchers that the Cowardly yankees can & when their is a Call for it, will, fight.”—Journal of New Hampshire Major Henry Dearborn
Dearborn, Henry, eds. Brown, Lloyd A. and Peckham, Howard H., Revolutionary War Journals of Henry Dearborn, 1775-1783, 1939. Chicago: The Caxton Club, 1939; reprinted Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 1994, p. 107. - “As the General is informed, that Numbers of Free Negroes are desirous of inlisting, he gives leave to the recruiting Officers to entertain them, and promises to lay the matter before the Congress, who he doubts not will approve of it.”—Geo Washington, General Orders, Head Quarters, Cambridge, December 30, 1775.
George Washington Papers collection from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress - “I went down … to the Officers to offer my services… they questioned me a little and finally said that I might stay … if I thought that I could do the duty of a Soldier.— Journal of Daniel Granger, who enlisted in the Continental Army at age 13
Quaife, M M., “A Boy Soldier Under Washington: The Memoir of Daniel Granger”, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Mar., 1930), pp. 539. - “This Day the Great Mr. Burgoyne with his whole Army Surrendered themselves as Prisoners of war … & after Grounding their armes, marched off for New England, the greatest Conquest Ever known.”—Journal of Henry Dearborn
Dearborn, Henry, eds. Brown, Lloyd A. and Peckham, Howard H., Revolutionary War Journals of Henry Dearborn, 1775-1783, 1939. Chicago: The Caxton Club, 1939; reprinted Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 1994, p. 110. - “…we marchd befor Day from these woods & traveled all Day In the Storme & the worst traveling I Ever saw – the Rhodes was mostly Clay which was Like morter – we traveld to a Small town…”—1777 Diary of Sergeant John Smith, First Rhode Island
The 1777 Continental Army Diary Of Sergeant John Smith, First Rhode Island Regiment (Colonel Christopher Greene commanding, Varnum’s Brigade), American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, Massachusetts, authorized transcription by Bob McDonald, 1998. - “It would be useless for us to denounce the servitude to which the Parliament of Great Britain wishes to reduce us, while we continue to keep our fellow creatures in slavery just because their color is different from ours.”—Dr. Benjamin Rush writing to his friend in France, Dr. Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg. Dr. Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence who purchased William Grubber in 1776 and did not free him until 1794.
Nash, Gary B., The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America, Viking, New York, NY, 2005, p. 121. - “Liberty is Equally as precious to a Black Man, as it is to a white one, and Bondage Equally as intolerable to the one as it is to the other… An African, or a Negro may Justly Challenge, and has an undeniable right to his Liberty: Consequently, the practise of Slave-keeping, which so much abounds in this Land is illict.”—“Liberty Further Extended: Or free thoughts on the illegality of Slave-keeping,” essay written by African-American Lemuel Haynes, veteran of the Battle of Lexington
Egerton, Douglas R., Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2009, p. 60. - “What then is to become of the Army this Winter?”— letter from George Washington to Henry Laurens of the Continental Congress 12/23/1777
Freedman, Russell, Washington at Valley Forge, Holiday House, New York, NY, 2008, p. 8. - “Three Days successively, we have been destitute of Bread. Two Days we have been intirely without Meat…. The Men must be supplied, or they cannot be commanded.”—Gen James Varnum of RI reporting to Gen Washington Dec 22, 1777.
Boyle, Joseph Lee, Writing from the Valley Forge Encampment of the Continental Army, December 19, 1777-June 19, 1778, Vols. 1- 6, Heritage Books Inc., Westminster, MD, 2007, Vol. 1, p. 2. - “What have you for your dinner, boys?”
“Nothing but fire cake and water, sir.”
“…What is your Supper, Lads?”
“Fire cake and water, Sir.”
—Diary of Albigence Waldo, Dec 21 VF
Scheer, George F., Rankin, Hugh F., Rebels and redcoats: the American Revolution through the eyes of those who fought and lived it, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA, 1987, p. 291. - “We have one Dull ax to build a Logg Hutt. When it will be done knows not.”—7th CT Letter of Surgeon’s Mate Jonathan Todd to his father from Valley Forge, Dec 25, 1777
Thibaut, Jacqueline, Vol. 3: In the True Rustic Order: Historic Resource Study and Historical Base Maps of the Valley Forge Encampment, 1777—1778, The Valley Forge Historical Research Project, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Valley Forge, PA, 1980 – 198, p. 31. - “The army was not only starved but naked. The greatest part were not only shirtless and barefoot, but destitute of all other clothing, especially blankets… [shoeless soldiers] might be tracked by their blood along the rough frozen ground.” —Journal of Joseph Plumb Martin, a 17- year old at VF with 15th MA
Raphael, Ray, Founders; The People Who Brought You a Nation, The New Press, New York, NY, 2009, p. 324. - “To see Men without Cloathes to cover their nakedness, without Blankets to lay on, without Shoes, by which their Marches might be traced by the Blood from their feet, and almost as often without Provisions as with; Marching through frost and Snow, and at Christmas taking up their Winter Quarters within a day’s March of the enemy, without a House or Hurt to cover them till they could be built and submitting to it without a murmur, is a mark of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be parallel’d.”—Letter from George Washington To John Banister, April 21, 1778
George Washington Papers collection from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress - “I am now convinced beyond a doubt that unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place… the Army must inevitably be reduced to one or the other of these three things: Starve – disolve – or disperse.”—Washington writing to Henry Laurens, president of the Continental Congress, Dec 23, 1777
Ellis, Joseph J., American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2007, p. 64. - “half a pumpkin, which I cooked by placing it upon a rock, the skin side uppermost, and making a fire upon it. By the time it was heated through I devoured it with as keen an appetite as I should a pit made of it at some other time.”—Journal of Joseph Plumb Martin, a 17- year old at VF with 15th MA
Freedman, Russell, Washington at Valley Forge, Holiday House, New York, NY, 2008, p. - “I was there when the army first began to build huts. They appeared to me like a family of beavers, everyone busy; some carrying logs, others mud, and the rest plastering them together…. it is a curious collection of buildings, in the true rustic order…”— Thomas Paine writing to Benjamin Franklin
Thibaut, Jacqueline, Vol. 3: In the True Rustic Order: Historic Resource Study and Historical Base Maps of the Valley Forge Encampment, 1777—1778, The Valley Forge Historical Research Project, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Valley Forge, PA, 1980 – 1982, p. 6. - “…it is a trublesum times for us all, but wors for the Soldiers.” —Letter of Connecticut sergeant Ichabod Ward written at Valley Forge
Bodle, Wayne, The Valley Forge Winter: Civilians and Soldiers at War, The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA, 2002, p. 129. - “Steel: s. iron refined and purified by the fire; a weapon.” —Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, published 1755
Johnson, Samuel, A dictionary of the English language : in which the words are deduced from their originals, explained in their different meanings and authorized by the names of the writers in whose works they are found W. Strahan, London, England, Vol. II, p. 737. - “Jethro, a Negro from Guilford belonging to Capt. Hall’s Company, Died in his Tent…”— Letter of 7th CT Surgeon’s Mate Jonathan Todd letter to his father, 12/26/1777
Thibaut, Jacqueline, Vol. 3: In the True Rustic Order: Historic Resource Study and Historical Base Maps of the Valley Forge Encampment, 1777—1778, The Valley Forge Historical Research Project, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Valley Forge, PA, 1980 – 1982, p. 74. - “…We have near Ninety men in the Regiment that have not a Shooe to their foot and near as many who have no feet to their Stockings. It gives me pain to see our men turned out upon the parade to mount Guard or to go on Fatigue with their Naked feet on the Snow and Ice it would grieve the heart Even of that cruel Tyrant of Britain to see it…”— Letter of Lt. Col. Samuel Carlton to Gen William. Heath Jan 28, 1778
Boyle, Joseph Lee, Writing from the Valley Forge Encampment of the Continental Army, December 19, 1777-June 19, 1778, Vols. 1- 6, Heritage Books Inc., Westminster, MD, 2007, Vol. 1, pp. 37-38. - “Court Lieutt. Orr, of 10th. Pennsylvania Regiment, tried for ungentlemanlike behavior and conniving with Serjeant Hughes in secreting stolen Goods, secondly for countenancing him in carrying off and offering for sale a Molatto Slave belonging to Major Shaw, found guilty of the first charge exhibited against him being a breach of 21st. Article 14th. Section of the Articles of War and sentenced to be discharged the service.”— General orders Geo washington April 16, 1778
George Washington Papers collection from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress - “I am sick, discontented, and out of humor. Poor food- hard lodging – Cold Weather – fatigue – Nasty Cloaths – nasty Cookery – Vomit half my time – smoked out of my sense -the Devil in’t- I can’t Endure it – Why are we sent here to starve and Freeze – What sweet Felicities have I left at home! A charming Wife- pretty Children – Good Beds – good food – good Cookery – all agreeable – all harmonious. Here all confusion – smoke and cold – hunger and filthiness – a pox on my bad luck.”— Diary of Dr. Albigence Waldo, Surgeon, 1st CT Regiment, Valley Forge
Bobrick, Benson, Angel in the Whirlwind; The Triumph of the American Revolution, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 1997, p. 290. - “Our freedom depends on the exertions of a few patriotic individuals. It is with grief that we learn that the Congress is made up of so few of them.” —Diary of Christopher Marshall, Philadelphia pharmacist
Stoudt, John Joseph, Ordeal at Valley Forge; A Chronicle Compiled From The Sources, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1963, p. 128. - “…When you consider that the poor Dogs are … without Cloathes to wear, Victuals to eat Wood to burn or straw to lie on the wonder is that they stay not that they go.”— Letter from NY Congressman Gouverneur Morris, member of the Valley Forge Committee at Camp
Adams, William Howard, Gouverneur Morris; An Independent Life, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2003, p. 98. - “I am neither an Officer nor a Soldier. This, Sir, is my unhappy Case! A Thirst for Honor; The Defence of my own Property & the common Rights of Mankind have, for a long Time, with united Force, invited be to join the Martial Band…. It shall ever be my gratest pleasure… faithfully to fulfill the various Duties incumbent upon me.” —John Howard to Henry Knox may 1776
Mayer, Holly A., Belonging to the Army; Camp Followers and Community during the American Revolution, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC, 1996, p. 183. - “… First the want of a Waiter, as I shall have to leave the one I now have, & in my Absence from Camp There’l be no one to take care of my tent & Clothes…”— letter of Lt. Isaac Guion, 2nd Continental Artillery, writing to Col. John Lamb about his need for a servant Belonging to the Army
Mayer, Holly A., Belonging to the Army; Camp Followers and Community during the American Revolution, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC, 1996, p. 175. - “I wish most sincerely there was not a Slave in the province. It allways appeard a most iniquitious Scheme to me-fight ourselfs for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have. You know my mind upon this Subject.”— Abigail Adams, whose father owned slaves, writing to her husband, John
Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 22 September 1774 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society - “Such a proceeding as this, committed on a defenceless stranger, almost worn out in the hard service of the world, without any foundation in reason or justice, whatever it may be called in a christian land, would in my native country have been branded as a crime equal to highway robbery. But Captain Hart was a white gentleman, and I a poor African, therefore it was all right, and good enough for the black dog.”— Venture Smith (Broteer Furro) who was kidnapped from Guinea at age 8 and eventually bought his own freedom. His free son, Cuff, fought for the Patriots for three years
Smith, Venture, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself. New London, CT, 1798. Reprinted J. S. Stewart, Middletown, CT, 1897, p 28. University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. - “Col. John Ely was ordered to dismiss a Negro slave (owned by Joseph Crandall) from his regiment, to return to said Crandall; and his premium, arms, etc to be returned before his dismission.” —Act of the Connecticut Council of Safety, July 7, 1777.
Hinman, Royal Ralph, A historical collection from official records, files, &c., of the part sustained by Connecticut, during the war of the revolution: with an appendix, containing important letters, depositions, &c., written during the war, Royal Ralph Hinman, Printed by E. Gleason, 1842, p. 466. - “The man that says slaves be quite happy in slavery—that they don’t want to be free—that man is either ignorant or a lying person.”— Mary Prince
Gates Jr. , Henry Louis, ed., The Classic Slave Narratives: The Life of Olaudah Equiano, The History of Mary Prince, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl, Penguin, New York, NY, 2002, p. 10. - “… I had thought only slavery dreadful, but the state of a free negro appeared to me now equally so at least, and in some respects even worse, for they live in constant alarm for their liberty…” —Olaudah Equiano mariner and former slave
Kaplan, Sidney and Kaplan, Emma Nogrady, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, revised edition, University of Massachusetts Press, 1989, p. 214. - ” To make a calf’s foot pie
First set four calvs feet on in a sauce-pan in three quarts of water, with three or four blades of mace; let them boil sftly till there is about a pint and a half, then take out your feet… pic off the flesh from the bones, lay half in the dish, strew half a pound of currants clean washed and picked over and half a pound of raisins softened … bake it an hour and a half.” —Glasse, Hannah, The art of cookery, made plain and easy: which far exceeds any thing of the kind yet published
Printed for W. Strahan, J. and F. Rivington, J. Hinton, 1774, p. 135. - “She took down her horse whip, an while she was glutting her fury with it, I reached out my great black hand, raised it up and received the blows of the whip on it which were designed for my head. I immediately committed the whip to the devouring fire.”—Venture Smith’s (Broteer Furro) description of how he stopped his Long Island owner from beating his wife, Meg.
Kaplan, Sidney and Kaplan, Emma Nogrady, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, revised edition, University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. p. 255. - “… the young negro fellow Will Shag who formerly lived at old Quarter and as he was always Runaway I moved him down here to Settle this place… but he Runaway some time in June went to York and past for a free man … he went away for no provocation in the world but So lazy he will not work and a greater Rogue is not to be found.” —Letter to George Washington from one of his overseers, Joseph Valentine
George Washington Papers collection from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress - “RUN away … a Negroe Girl, named Hagar, about 14 Years of Age, of a brownish Complexion, has remarkable long Fingers and Toes, and a Scar under one of her Breasts, supposed to be got by Whipping. Had on… an Ozenbrigs Shift and Petticoat, very much patched…, an Iron Collar about her Neck…”—newspaper advertisement placed in the Pennsylvania Gazette by William Payne
Smith, Billy G., and Wojtowicz, Blacks Who Stole Themselves; Advertisements for Runaways in the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1790, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1989, p. 84. - “Cash paid the 22d Inst. to Proctr. band by the G.O [General’s order]. …15s.” —Daily expense account of George Washington showing payment made to the band of Colonel Thomas Proctor’s 4th Continental Artillery which serenaded him on his birthday at Valley Forge
George Washington Papers collection from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress - “Upon the whole my dearest friend and father, I hope my plan for serving my Country and the oppressed Negro-race will not appear to you the Chimera of a young mind deceived by a false appearance of moral beauty, but a laudable sacrifice of private Interest to justice and the Public good.” —John Laurens’ letter to his father Henry, President of the Continental Congress and slave trader, February 2 1778
Laurens, John, Colonel, ed. Gilmore, William, The Army Correspondence of Colonel John Laurens in the years 1777-8, 1867 private printing for The Bradford Club, 1867, p. 116. - “This curious Character of a Barber…. I have a great Inclination to draw for your Amusement. He is a little dapper fellow…, a Tongue as fluent and voluble as you please, Wit at Will, and a Memory or an Invention which never leaves him at a Loss for a story to tell you for your Entertainment…. He has dressed Hair, and shaved Faces at Bath and at Court… He is a serjeant in one of the Companies of some Battalion or other here… I assure you I am glad to chatt with this Barber while he is shaving and combing me, to divert myself from less agreable Thoughts.” —Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 April 1776
Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. - “… we are taught first to march without musick but the time of march is given us. Slow Time is a medium between what was in our service Slow and Quicke Time… about as Quicke as a Common Country Dance.”—Notes on the instructions of Baron von Steuben by Col. Isaac Sherman of CT
Bodle, Wayne, The Valley Forge Winter: Civilians and Soldiers at War, The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA, 2002, p. 200. - “The genius of this nation is not to be compared … with that of the Prussians, Austrians, or French. You say to your soldier, ‘Do this,” and he does it; but I am obliged to say, ‘This is the reason why you ought do that,’ and then he does it.”—Baron von Steuben writing to Prussian Baron de Gaudy
Lockhart, Paul, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge; The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army, Harper Collins, 2008, p. 104. - “His Excellency today appealed to the Officers of this Army to consider themselves as a band of brothers cemented by the justice of a common cause.”— General orders George Washington, April 6, 1778
Stoudt, John Joseph, Ordeal at Valley Forge; A Chronicle Compiled From The Sources, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1963, p. 223. - “It has ever been my study and ever shall be, to render you as happy [as] possible. But I have been obliged in many instances to sacrifice the present pleasures to our future hopes. This I am sensible has done violence to your feelings…”— Nathanael Greene to his wife Kitty Greene, July 17, 1778
Original letter item # 07884.02 Gilder Lehrman Collection - “Melancholy… will force the blood into the brain, and produce all the symptoms of madness. It may likewise proceed from the use of aliment that is hard of digestion, or which cannot be easily assimilated; from a callous state of the integuments of the brain, or dryness of the brain itself. To all which we may add gloomy or mistaken notions of religion.”— Domestic Medicine, a medical text book by Dr. Buchan of London
Buchan, Dr. William. Domestic Medicine or a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases. 2nd Ed. London, England, 1785.chapter 43. E-text taken from: http://www.americanrevolution.org/medicine/medicine.html - When love once pleads admission to our hearts,
(In spite of all the virtue we can boast,)
The woman that deliberates is lost.
The woman that deliberates is lost.
—Cato, Act IV, Scene 1 Joseph Addison, by Joseph Addison, performed at Valley Forge
Henderson, Christine Dunn and Yellin, Mark E., eds., Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis, IN, 2004. Accessed from http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1229/9124 on 2010-02-16 - In Memory of
JENNY,
Servant to the Rev, Enoch Huntington, and Wife Of Mark Winthrop,
Who died April 28, 1784.
The day of her death she was Mr. Huntington’s Property.
—Gravestone epitaph, Liberty Street Burial Ground, Middletown, CT.
Nell, William Cooper, The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons: To Which Is Added a Brief Survey of the Condition And Prospects of Colored Americans, Robert C. Wallcutt, Boston, MA, 1855. e-text scanned by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, p. 144. - “…she was indeed the object of my first love, a love which can only be extinguished with my existence; and never at any period previous was the yoke of bondage more goading, or did I feel so sensibly the want of that freedom… which was now the only barrier to my much wished for union with one I so sincerely and tenderly loved.” —Robert Voorhis, born a slave in New Jersey in 1769
Trumball, Henry, Life and Adventures of Robert, the Hermit of Massachusetts, Who has Lived 14 Years in a Cave, Secluded from Human Society: Comprising, an Account of his Birth, Parentage, Sufferings, and Providential Escape from Unjust and Cruel Bondage in Early Life, and His Reasons for Becoming a Recluse: p. 10- 11
Electronic Edition. , http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/robert/summary.html - “May poles were Erected in every Regt in the Camp and at the Revelie I was awoke by three cheers in honor of King Tamany. The day was spent in mirth and Jollity the soldiers parading marching with fife & Drum and Huzzaing as they passed the poles their hats adorned with white blossoms.”—journal of Private George Ewing, 2nd New Jersey Regiment at Valley Forge
Ewing, George. The Military Journal of George Ewing (1754-1824) a Soldier of Valley Forge. Yonkers, N.Y.: Privately printed, 1928, p. 41. - “This evening we had the agreeable news that the Courts of France and Spain had declared these United States free and Independent.” —journal of Private George Ewing, 2nd New Jersey Regiment at Valley Forge
Stoudt, John Joseph, Ordeal at Valley Forge; A Chronicle Compiled From The Sources, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1963, p. 259. - “The welfare of America is intimately bound up with the happiness of humanity. She is going to become a cherished and safe refuge of virtue, of good character, of tolerance, of equality, and of a peaceful liberty.”— Marquis de Lafayette, in a letter to his wife, Adrienne
Bobrick, Benson, Angel in the Whirlwind; The Triumph of the American Revolution, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 1997, p. 293. - “….greatest Day Ever yet Experienced in Our Independent World of Liberty.”—Philip van Cortlandt writing to Pierre van Cortlandt about the Valley Forge Festivities to celebrate the French Alliance
Bodle, Wayne, The Valley Forge Winter: Civilians and Soldiers at War, The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA, 2002, p. 202. - “RUN away from Birdsborough Forge, in Berks county, Pennsylvania… CUFF DIX; he is an active, well made fellow, and a most excellent hammerman … there is a ring of iron in one of his ears… he has often run away. As Negroes in general think that Lord Dunmore is contending for their liberty, it is not improbable that said Negroe is on his march to join his Lordship’s own black regiment…”—newspaper advertisement placed in the Pennsylvania Gazette by Mark Bird forge owner and Deputy Quartermaster of the Continental Army
Smith, Billy G., and Wojtowicz, Blacks Who Stole Themselves; Advertisements for Runaways in the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1790, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1989, p. 130. - “We don’t know what will happen, but we are determined to Lay our bones in the American cause.”— Adionghhonras (Deacon Thomas) in response to George Washington’s request for Oneida warriors to join the troops at Valley Forge
Glatthaar, Joseph T., and Martin, James Kirby, Forgotten Allies; The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution, Hill and Wang, New York, 2006, p. 202. - “Oh! think what anxious moments pass between / The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods, / Oh! ’tis a dreadful interval of time, / Filled up with horror all, and big with death!”—Cato, Act I, Scene 3, by Joseph Addison, performed at Valley Forge
Henderson, Christine Dunn and Yellin, Mark E., eds., Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis, IN, 2004. Accessed from http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1229/9124 on 2010-02-16 - “We flew, we separated, but a young man, whom I had become attached to, said he would not leave me, let the consequence be what it would… We had got within about two miles of home, thinking ourselves out of danger, began to talk, when in an instant we found ourselves surrounded.” —Story of a kidnapped African girl told to Boyrereau Brinch (Jeffery Brace) who was kidnapped from Mali at 16 and enlisted by his master to serve as a Patriot soldier for five years
Prentiss, Benjamin Franklin and Winter, Karl J., The blind African slave, or, Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, nicknamed Jeffery Brace, As Told to Benjamin F. Prentiss, Esq. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 2005, p. 127. - “… that we are the creatures of that God, who made of one blood, and kindred, all the nations of the earth… We can never be convinced that we were made to be slaves… Is it consistent with the present claims of the United States to hold so many thousands… in perpetual slavery? Can human nature endure the shocking idea?”—Petition of Prince and Prime to wartime state legislature of CT, May 11, 1779
Nash, Gary B., The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America, Viking, New York, NY, 2005, p. 321. - “This land which we have watered with our tears and our blood is now our mother country…”—Richard Allen, born a slave, who drove wagons during American Revolution
Kaplan, Sidney and Kaplan, Emma Nogrady, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, revised edition, University of Massachusetts Press, 1989, p. 109.