"Sampson's superiors all agreed that she was an excellent soldier...it was her reliability, intelligence, and bravery that made it possible for her to go undetected for so long" (Saxon, 2004). She risked her life to save her country and to fight for her country, and even risked her life to remain a soldier. Sampson's life "bears out a theory that Margaret R. And Patrice L.R. Higonnet developed to describe the effects of war and peace on gender. They imagined a system in which men and women are positioned as if they were opposing ribbons of a double helix, which, no matter the circumstances, always maintain a constant distance from each other. Society, if not biology, has always defined the men's strand as superior. In peacetime men do the significant jobs. Though many women take over this work in wartime, men fight, performing an activity given greater importance. And when war ends, women leave the important jobs and men retake them, thus preserving the same interval between male and female activities," in short men do the 'real' work, as viewed in the eyes of society (Saxon, 2004). Sampson defied this divide; she demanded to perform the 'real' work in peacetime and in...

During peacetime this extraordinary woman assumed the public role of partial breadwinner for her impoverished household as one of the first, most notable lecturers and surviving soldiers of the Revolution. She died a living legend, and her story is important to retell today, in honor of her service to her country and also to her gender.
Works Cited

Deborah Sampson Gannett: American Patriot." American Revolution. 2007. 24 Jun

http://www.americanrevolution.com/DeborahSamson.htm

Henretta, James a. "Unruly Women": Jemima Wilkinson and Deborah Sampson Gannett

Biographies from Early America." Published in America's History. Ed. By James a. Henretta, Elliot Brownlee, David Brody, Susan Ware, & Marilynn Johnson. 3rd Ed., Worth Publishers Inc., 1997. Reprinted in the Early American Review. Fall 1996.

Saxton Martha. Rev. Of Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson,

Continental Soldier. New York by Alfred Young. William and Mary Quarterly. (LXII)…