The American Mulan: The Amazing and True Story of Deborah Sampson

Mulan was a modest Walt Disney animated hit that recast a possibly partially true Chinese legend about a young girl who disguised herself as a man in order to join the army. What most people don’t know is that one of the most interesting stories of the American revolution tells almost the exact same story not encumbered by quite as much myth and legend. Which isn’t to say the story of Deborah Sampson is completely free from fictionalization.

Deborah Sampson was an ancestor of William Bradford, one of the legendary governors of the Plymouth colony. By the time Deborah was born, however, her lineage had fallen on hard times. Her father was a farmer who took off one day and her mother sold her into indentured servitude to a man who would probably feel right at home in America today. A conservative, religious man who denied Deborah Sampson her request for an education because he simply could not figure out how education would be profitable to either him or her. Not to be denied, however, Deborah sought to educate herself and became a voracious reader, quickly learning that the world was a good bit more than what she had been allowed to think it was. Deborah Sampson became as fanatical a reader as Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin and like those founding fathers she not only read, but actually comprehended what she read. It wasn’t just her mind that was developing, so were her aspirations as she began to apprehend that she herself had a part in making her own destiny. Democracy was taking shape inside the mind of the young indentured servant just as it was taking shape in Philadelphia.

At the same time that Deborah Sampson was gobbling up knowledge and learning how to do “women’s work” she was also becoming quite strong by working outside. Learn to cook and take care of the kids Deborah did, but she also added on some muscle mass that would serve her quite well at doing “men’s work” in a few years. Independence had been declared by the colonies just three short years before it was granted to Deborah Sampson