Book description
In Masquerade, Alfred F. Young scrapes through layers of fiction and myth to uncover the story of Deborah Sampson, a Massachusetts woman who passed as a man and fought as a soldier for seventeen months toward the end of the American Revolution.
Deborah Sampson was not the only woman to…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Masquerade as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
It took Americans a very long time to honor the ordinary foot soldiers and seamen of the Revolution. It took even longer to recover the women of the Revolution, historian Alfred F. Young tells us. The author parses through various historical records to present a realistic picture of the female soldier Deborah Sampson. Deborah was not the only woman to volunteer as a soldier – dressed as a man. Her record was exemplary. Sampson became known only after the war was over, and then only to a few people. This biography is among the most thorough of crossdressing fighting women,…
From Linda's list on 18th and 19th century crossdressers.
Mulan meets the American Revolution in this biography of Deborah Sampson, a Massachusetts woman who used a male alias to enlist in the Continental Army, serving undetected until a wound revealed her secret. Alfred Young uncovers the early modern tradition of gender impersonation, used by plebian women to escape difficult home lives and travel about the wider world, and explains how Sampson continued to capitalize on her military service long after she left the army.
From Timothy's list on con artists and imposters.
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