As part of its America 250 speaker series, the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at Northern Michigan University will host a presentation titled “Armed and Disguised: The Revolutionary Life of Deborah Sampson.” NMU History Associate Professor Emily Romeo will share the intriguing story of Sampson, who fought for the U.S. Continental Army under the male alias of Robert Shurtliff. The event will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 19, in the Lydia Olson Library Atrium in Harden Hall. It is free and open to the public.
During a time where women were not permitted to serve in the army, Sampson disguised herself as a man and fought in the American Revolutionary War for 17 months before being injured in a battle with locals in Tarrytown, N.Y. Following her injury, she was treated at a hospital for severe illness, where her true gender identity was soon exposed to her general and fellow troops.
Regardless of why she signed up, Sampson earned the respect of her fellow soldiers and commanding officers, challenging gender norms along the way. After the war, she would learn to balance her multiple identities as wife and mother, soldier and performer.
Romeo received her doctorate from the University of Chicago, where she began her research on the lives of women in 17th- and early 18th-century America. Her work explores women's expressions of violence in the context of the social, cultural and religious upheavals of that period.