A New Day To Die- Trifextra Week Twenty Two

The Revolutionary War came. He joined and was killed. But she was still in love!

Binding her breasts, she joined too, disguised as a boy.

Could she make a difference before being discovered?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I haven’t done a Trifextra weekend challenge in a while. Not because of any reason in particular, I suppose. {maybe I’m thinking you’re tired of my drivel? }

When I first came to this challenge, I initially thought I would have to write about this being an impossible challenge, since I read so much and couldn’t possibly pick just one favorite. The re-writing of a book in 33 words wasn’t too daunting, so long as I could actually pick one.

And then I remembered this book- I’m Deborah Sampson, by Patricia Clapp. As it turns out, I’ve heard that some schools do unit studies on her, which I think is really neat. That’s not how I learned about her, though.

I found this book in our middle school library, and was hooked- hooked so much so that as an adult, I chased down this book and another title (Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth; Patricia Clapp) from my local library, which had to order it from another. After hiding out in my room to finish them, I did pass them on to my oldest daughter who, while she thought they were good, was nowhere near as enraptured as I was.    Oh, how times have changed since I was a kid! {Because, you know, it’s not uncommon for women to be in the military these days}

Both of these books, while fictionally embellished, were based on real women. And while this one (I’m Deborah Sampson) was written at the middle school level, it still addressed more mature issues, like binding breasts and dealing with Aunt Flo.

I rarely re-read books {or re-watch movies, for that matter}, so if I do either, you’ll know that I thought it was pretty darn good!

Here are some links you might like, each with little extra tidbits of interesting information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Sampson- has quotes taken from letters to and from her good friend, Paul Revere

http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/womansoldier.html- shares more information surrounding the discovery of her gender- and how she decided to ‘come out’ after the doctor’s niece fell in love with her

http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/deborah-sampson/- really nice overview of her service and life, including information regarding the ‘why’s’ of when she decided to wear women’s clothing again