Cinema '76: Illustrated Transcript with Audio
That way to Henry Knox
"Deborah Sampson"
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Source: Ray Dashner Archives 2007 All Rights Reserved
Deborah Sampson,
Deborah Sampson,
As a man she volunteered,
As a man she persevered,
Did everything but grow a beard
To join the Continental Army
The Continental Army.
Let me tell you about
the only woman
Who enlisted as a man ...
He name was Deborah Sampson
A unique American.
As a child she had an
unhappy life.
Her father was lost at sea,
And because they were
penniless,
Her mother was forced
to break up the family.
But Deborah taught herself
reading and writing.
The girl was no one's fool;
And by the time she was twenty
She was teaching school.
Deborah Sampson,
Deborah Sampson,
As a man she volunteered,
As a man she persevered,
Did everything but grow a beard
To join The Continental Army,
The Continental Army.
Well, the first time she joined,
The Army discovered her
And sent her home to stay,
But Deborah was determined,
So she tried another way.
In a uniform she'd made secretly
She hiked to another town.
Changed her first name to Bob
And in this disguise
She signed up to fight the Crown
The fact that her face never need shaving, the men blamed on her youth.
Can you imagine those soldiers
If they had known the truth?
Deborah Sampson,
Deborah Sampson,
As a man she volunteered,
As a man she persevered,
Did everything but grow a beard
To join The Continental Army,
The Continental Army.
For a year and a half
No one suspected her
Tho' she'd been wounded twice;
'Til a doctor tending her fever
Learned her secret
in a trice.
So goodbye to fighting,
goodbye to war,
Goodbye to the army life.
Sweet romance came to
Deborah the following spring
And made her a happy wife.
The Congress decreed a pension for veterans
Should be awarded her.
And her husband was granted a pension,
The first to a widower.
Deborah Sampson,
Deborah Sampson,
As a man she volunteered,
As a man she persevered,
Did everything but grow a beard
To join The Continental Army,
The Continental Army.
