American Revolution Posters, Prints & Charts, pg 7/7
for social studies classrooms, history buffs and reenactors.

Paul Revere
Caesar Rodney
Betsy Ross
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Deborah Sampson
Roger Sherman

John Stark
von Steuben
John Sullivan
Thomas Sumter

Paul Revere
b. 1-1-1735; Boston, MA
d. 5-10-1818

• text Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Caesar Rodney
b. 10-7-1728; Kent County, Delaware
d. 6-29-1784

Lawyer Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Continental Congressman, was also an officer in the Delaware militia during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War.

Caesar Rodney quote ~
• “Now one was either Tory or Whig; it was either dependence or independence.”

Betsy Ross
b. 1-1-1752; Philadelphia, PA
d. 1-30-1836

On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress resolved: “That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” The resolution did not specify the arrangement, orientation, or number of points in the stars, so there were many flags in different configurations, crafted by many different hands, during the Revolution.

On the U.S. centennial in 1876 the Ross' family story of their foremother, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy, making the first “stars and stripes”, was told. Betsy Ross reportedly demonstrated how easy it was to cut a five pointed star.

• summer holidays posters

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
b. 6-28-1712; Geneva, Switzerland
d. 7-2-1778; France

Philosopher, author and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau was notable to the American Revolution influencing many of the Founding Fathers with his theory of the “social contract” and the “natural rights” of man including the right of the people to overthrow their leaders, should those leaders betray the historic rights of Englishmen.

Rousseau's novel Emile: or, On Education, describes the stages of child development with his conception of the evolution of culture.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau quotes ~
• “The noblest work in education is to make a reasoning man, and we expect to train a young child by making him reason! This beginning at the end; this is making an instrument of a result. If children understood how to reason they would not need to be educated.”
• “We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education.”
• “The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it.”
• “I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.”
• “Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.”
• “Men, be kind to your fellow-men; this is your first duty, kind to every age and station, kind to all that is not foreign to humanity. What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”

• The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Deborah Sampson
b. 12-17-1760; Winnetuxet (Plympton), MA
d. 4-19-1827; Sharon, MA

Deborah Sampson, who had worked as an indentured servant and as a teacher, disguised herself as a man and enlisted as Robert Shurtleff, in the Continental Army. Due to wounds and illness a doctor discovered her secret. Her commanding officer assigned Shurtleff the task of delivering a letter to George Washington, who then sent her home without disclosing her secret. Later she received an honorable discharge and was granted a pension and land grant. After 1802 she also made speeches wearing her uniform.

FYI - Her Baptish Church excommunicated her for wearing men's clothing.

Roger Sherman
b. 4-19-1721; Newton MA
d. 7-23-1793; Connecticut (typhoid)

Roger Sherman, elected to the Continental Congress in 1775 from Connecticut, was the only person to sign all four great state papers of the U.S.: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. He was also a member of the Committee of Five which drafted the Declaration of Independence and provided the settlement called the “Connecticut Compromise” which allowed for equal representation in one house - the Senate and proportional representation in the House of Representatives, in the legislative branch of the federal government.

Thomas Jefferson said of him: “That is Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, a man who never said a foolish thing in his life.” ~ Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Notable Sherman descendants are his son Roger Sherman Baldwin in the Amistad Supreme Court case, the brothers Senator John Sherman (Sherman Anti-Trust Act) and General William Tucumseh Sherman of US Civil War fame, and Archibald Cox in Richard Nixon's “Saturday Night Massacre”.

Roger Sherman quote ~
• “All civil rights and the right to hold office were to be extended to persons of any Christian denomination.”

John Stark
b. 8-28-1728; Londonderry, NH
d. 5-8-1822

John Stark, a veteran of the French and Indian War as a Roger's Ranger, lead his New Hampshire militia into the Battle of Bunker Hill, creating many casualities for the British. As a result of his leadership George Washington offered Stark a command in the Continental Army. The New Hampshire contingent then participated in the Battle of Trenton, and the Battle of Princeton.

Stark resigned his commission when another, less qualified New Hampshirian. was given a commission. He did command his militia, with the aid of Vermont's Green Mountain Boys, in holding up the British supply line in the Battle of Bennington, that lead to the American victory at Saratoga.

John Stark is the source of the state of New Hamphire's motto “Live free or die.”

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin Steuben, Baron von Steuben
b. 9-17-1730; Magdeburg, Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
d. 11-28-1794; Oneida Co, NY

Steuben, a German-Prussian with extensive military training, volunteered into the service of the Continental Army and is credited with teaching the essentials of military drill and discipline, resulting in victories for the Americans.

John Sullivan
b. 2-17-1740; Somersworth, NH
d. 1-23-1795

John Sullivan, a general in the Continental Army, participated in the Battle of Fort William and Mary between colonists and the Crown troops in Portsmouth, NH, in December 1774, five months before the encounter at Lexington and Concord.

Sullivan also was a delegate in the Continental Congress and served as Governor of New Hampshire.

Thomas Sumter
b. 8-14-1734; Virginia
d. 6-1-1832; South Carolina

Thomas Sumter, whose greatest military contribution to the War for Independence was driving Lord Cornwallis out of the Carolinas to Virginia where Cornwallis met his fate at Yorktown in October 1781. Sumter's fierce fighting was described “like a gamecock” by a British officer. He is the namesake of Fort Sumter, the site of the first Civil War battle.

Mercy Otis Warren
b. 9-14-1728; Barnstable, MA
d. 10-19-1814; Plymouth

Mercy Otis Warren, the sister of patriot lawyer James Otis (1725-1783), and wife of James Warren, is known as the “Conscience of the American Revolution.” Her brother is responsible for the phrase “taxation without representation is tyranny”.

Mercy Warren was a close friend of Abigail Adams and hosted political meetings in her home. In 1772 her play, The Adulateur, was published. After the war, in 1790, Mrs. Warren published a volume of poetry in her name and in 1805 she published History of the American Revolution.

• notable women

Washington Taking Command of the Army Art Print

George Washington, commander of the Continental army, defeated the British army.

Martha Washington Art Print

Martha Washington
b. 6-2-1731; Chestnut Grove, Virginia
d. 5-22-1802; Mt. Vernon, VA

Martha Dandridge Custis married fellow Virginia planter George Washington on January 6, 1759. Martha was a widow with two children when she they married and they did not have children together.

Martha spent the winter with Washington at Valley Forge, her son John died of typhus whlie serving as an aide to his step-father at Yorktown.

Anthony Wayne
b. 1-1-1745; Easttown Twp., PA
d. 12-15-1796; Ft Presque Isle, PA

“Mad Anthony” Wayne, educated as a surveyor, raised a militia at the beginning of the Revolutionary War and was promoted to brigadier general. He participated at Fort Ticonderoga, wintered at Valley Forge, won the Battle of Stony Point - which allowed Washington's troops to cross the Hudson River two years later on their way to Yorktown, VA.

After the War for Independence George Washington asked Wayne to deal with the Native American tribes in the Northwest who were not party to, or honoring, the Treaty of Paris. In the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Wayne defeated the confederation of tribes lead by Blue Jacket, and resulted in the Treaty of Greenville (1795) which opened the area of present day Ohio for settlement.

Many locations are named for Wayne - Fort Wayne, IN; Wayne County, MI.

Phillis Wheatley
b. c. 1753; Senegal
d. 12-5-1784; Boston

The woman known as Phillis Wheatley was born in Senegal, kidnapped in 1761 and shipped to America on a slave ship named “Phillis”. She was purchased John and Susanna Wheatley, a wealthy Boston merchant, who tutored her with their son Nathaniel. Wheatley's published poetry helped her gain her freedom but she died in poverty, from complications of childbirth. One of her poems was in praise of George Washington; she was a supporter of the colonists seeking independence.