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Teenagers were critical to the American victory in the Revolutionary War. Over half of the colonial population was under the age of 16. A draft of all boys between the ages of 16 and 19 was enacted to fill the ranks of the Continental Army, leaving their sisters to fill their places at home. These circumstances meant that teenagers played an essential role not only in combat but also on the home front.Israel Trask joined the militia at the age of 10; by the time he turned 12 he was serving at sea. Abigail Foote, a 15-year-old from Connecticut, wove cloth, sewed clothes, weeded the garden and made cheese, providing much needed clothing and food. Henry Yeager, 13, barely escaped hanging for his army role as drummer. Dicey Langston, 16 when the war began, risked her life to pass loyalist information to the Patriots. Future president Andrew Jackson was only 14 when he was captured and sent to jail at Camden.This book relates the Revolutionary War experiences of 23 teenagers. Drawing on firsthand accounts of young Americans from Massachusetts to South Carolina and from many different backgrounds-wealthy and poor, slave and free, Tory and Patriot-it provides a fascinating, varied look at America's fight for independence and teenagers' role in this struggle for liberty.Excerpts from journals and memoirs make up the body of the text. Appendices provide a chronology of events and a glossary of sailing terms.Former librarian Elizabeth Ryan Metz lives in Manlius, New York.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Alex Zielinski
reviewed I Was a Teenager in the American Revolution: 21 Young Patriots and Two Tories Tell Their Stories on December 22, 2015
I Was a Teenager in the American Revolution: 21 Young Patriots and Two Tories Tell Their Stories
Of the many Civil War memoirs by Confederate ladies, no one is likely the choose Parthenia's book as the most dramatic: she had the good fortune not to encounter the horrors of war at first hand, and only a brief visit near the end to the ruins of Columbus, GA takes her into the territory explored by Mary A.H. Gay and many others.
Parthenia spent most of the war teaching school in a small town in Alabama, and her narrative dwells heavily on everyday domestic life, with particular emphasis on how ordinary people coped with shortages resulting from the Federal blockade. There is exhaustive detail about manufacturing clothing, most of which went over my head: prior knowledge of the craft of weaving is necessary to grasp what is going on (and it is precisely this kind of unique, homely detail which is lacking in most memoirs of this kind, making this one of particular value to historical specialists). Other matters, such as the creation of coffee substitutes and the manufacture of sugar are accessible even to those of us accustomed to buying everything in plastic wrap.
Despite its relative tranquility, the book has memorable moments. Parthenia had a gift for evoking a scene, and several linger in the reader's memory: a bridal party under the moon for a household slave ("a vision of fairy-land"); glimpses through a carriage window of bucolic scenes not yet touched by war ("Now an open field of corn, green of blade, gently billowed by the wind, an old gray-haired farmer plowing, seemingly oblivious to all surrounding objects, and singing, as if from the fullness of a glad soul, the refrain, 'I have some friends in glory'"); and, most memorable of all, the serio-comic episode in which the invading Yankees do not come tramping into her village.
As usual with these memoirs, there is an inclination to romanticize the antebellum world, and Parthenia is unashamed of her racism. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's introduction provides useful context.
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Add I Was a Teenager in the American Revolution: 21 Young Patriots and Two Tories Tell Their Stories, Teenagers were critical to the American victory in the Revolutionary War. Over half of the colonial population was under the age of 16. A draft of all boys between the ages of 16 and 19 was enacted to fill the ranks of the Continental Army, leaving their , I Was a Teenager in the American Revolution: 21 Young Patriots and Two Tories Tell Their Stories to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add I Was a Teenager in the American Revolution: 21 Young Patriots and Two Tories Tell Their Stories, Teenagers were critical to the American victory in the Revolutionary War. Over half of the colonial population was under the age of 16. A draft of all boys between the ages of 16 and 19 was enacted to fill the ranks of the Continental Army, leaving their , I Was a Teenager in the American Revolution: 21 Young Patriots and Two Tories Tell Their Stories to your collection on WonderClub |
