581: Deborah Sampson Gannett Revolutionary War Soldier Born: 17 December 1760, Plympton, The Massachusetts Bay Colony (Present-day Plympton, Massachusetts, United States of America) Died: 29 April 1827, Sharon, Massachusetts, United States of America Deborah is also the first known American woman to dress up as a man to fight in war. She enlisted in the…
“Madison Hemings said very little about what his mother thought of his father, only that she “implicitly relied” on Jefferson’s promise. Hemings also said that he and his siblings “were the only children of [Jefferson’s] by a slave woman.”” -Courtesy of Monticello.org 526: Sally Hemings Thomas Jefferson’s Not-So-Secret Mistress Born: 1773, The Colony of Virginia…
438: Rachel Wall American Pirate Born: c.1760, The Colony of Pennsylvania (Present-day Carlisle, Pennsylvania, United States of America) Died: 8 October 1789, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America Rachel left home at the age of sixteen and worked for a time as a domestic servant before her on-again-off-again boyfriend convinced her to become a pirate…
341: Phillis Wheatley The First Published African American Female Poet Born: c.1753, Senegal (Or Gambia, The Exact Location is Disputed) Died: 5 December 1784, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America Phillis was a slave and simultaneously one of the best-known poets of her time, writing around 145 poems in her lifetime. After being purchased to…
277: Rebecca Nurse Salem Witch Born: 21 February 1621, Norfolk, England (Present-day United Kingdom) Died: 19 July 1692, Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony (Present-day Massachusetts, United States of America) Rebecca was hanged at seventy-one years of age despite being a fervent churchgoer and grandmother. According to sources she was known for her piety but also occasionally…
262: Elizabeth Proctor Richards Accused of being a Salem Witch Alongside her Husband John Born: c. 1652, Lynn, Massachusetts Bay Colony (Present-day Lynn, Massachusetts, United States of America) Died: after 1711 Elizabeth was also the granddaughter of another woman who had been tried and then acquitted of witchcraft thirty years before, and in a place…
260: Abigail Williams One of the Initial Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials Born: 12 July 1680, Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony (Present-day Salem, Massachusetts, United States of America) Died: after 1697 Not much is known about Abigail’s life before or after the trials, which took place between 1692 and 1693. She and her cousin Betty…
237: Martha Corey Accused Salem Witch Born: c.1620 Died: 22 September 1692, Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony (Present-day Salem, Massachusetts, United States of America) Martha was the last woman to be hung in the trials. She and her husband were simple farmers in Salem Village and never hurt anybody. Unfortunately for them, Martha made the mistake…
226: Mary Peck Butterworth Possibly the First Counterfeiter in What Would Become the United States Born: 27 July 1686, Rehobeth, Massachusetts Bay Colony (Present-day Rehobeth, Massachusetts, United States of America) Died: 7 February 1775, Rehobeth, Massachusetts Bay Colony (Present-day Rehobeth, Massachusetts, United States of America) (This Mary is not to be confused with the band…
169) Israel Putnam “Don’t Shoot Till You See the Whites of Their Eyes!” Born: 7 January 1718, Salem Village, the Colony of Massachusetts (Present-day Danvers, Massachusetts, United States of America) Died: 29 May 1790, Brooklyn, Connecticut, United States of America He was the great-grandson of one of the prominent families in the Salem Witch Trials…