Freedom Fighters

OFTEN-OVERLOOKED HEROES OF THE REVOLUTION

NATIVE ALLY

NANYEHI

The Cherokee leader, known also as Nancy Ward, warned North Carolina colonists of imminent raids by her cousin, the war chief Dragging Canoe, who sided with the Loyalists.

(WO)MAN OF ACTION

DEBORAH SAMPSON

At 21, she joined the 4th Massachusetts Regiment disguised as a man and served for 17 months. When she fell sick, an army doctor discovered her sex. Sampson was honorably discharged.

SECRET AGENT

ANNA SMITH STRONG

She worked with Abraham Woodhull, a member of George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring. Some historians say Strong, of Setauket, New York, was the famous spy “355,” who Woodhull said would help “outwit them all.”

PARLOR GAME

LYDIA DARRAGH

The Irish-born Quaker was nearly 50 when redcoats requisitioned her Philadelphia parlor as a meeting room in 1777. Overhearing their plans to attack a Patriot camp, she legged it 12 miles to warn Continental troops.

HIDDEN FIGURES PATIENCE LOVELL WRIGHT

An American artist living in London, Wright was known for her life-size wax sculptures. Before war broke out, she reputedly eavesdropped on elite Brits, hid the intel in wax figures and shipped them home.