Two Amazing Young People and One Unsung Hero of the American Revolution
As you may note, I blog about my life. Projects I am doing, things I am learning and places I have gone. As we study the American Revolution and Early American history in our school you can expect a few posts about some of heroes in that time. This blog post is one of those, highlighting three amazing people. Susannah Boone Hays, Caeser Rodney and Paul Revere Jr.
Let’s start with Susannah Boone Hays.
Susannah Boone was the daughter of Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman. She was newly married to William Hays and probably only about 18 or 19.
Both her father and her husband were working on a project, building a wilderness road, opening Kentucky to settlers. Susannah and her servant were the only women in the group and what a life they had! Susannah would wake up, cook breakfast and when the men were clearing a road, she and her servant would pack up camp and go to the new camp and set up, cook dinner, etc.
Along the way, there was an Indian attack and bad weather. However, Susannah Boone and her servant, had the privilege of being the first, non-Indian women to be in Kentucky. Susannah must have been very brave!
Now, let me tell you about a brave young boy, named Paul Revere Jr.
We all know about “the” Paul Revere. Paul Revere had a son also named Paul that did something pretty brave when he was only 13 or 14.
The British had taken Boston, where the Reveres lived and when the Revolutionary War “officially” started the Revere family escaped to another town that was not taken by the British. But Mr. Reveres shop was still in Boston and if you left a building, shop or home, the British would vandalize and desecrate it. So young Paul stayed in Boston to take care of his family’s home until it was safe to come back.
This might not seem like much but think about it. The British had taken the city and things were not very stable there. Young Paul was alone in his house, with the British right outside. In those times of unrest Paul was being very brave as he protected his family’s home.
Those are the stories of the two amazing young people, as it says in my title. Now for the unsung hero of the American Revolution. Caeser Rodney.
You probably have not heard of him but he was so important in the making of our country. The Declaration of Independence was written and all it needed was to be unanimously passed. All the colonies had to agree. The vote was taken and here were the results: Nine of the thirteen colonies voted yes, two voted no, one abstained and one was split, one delegate to one. The Congress decided to have another debate the next morning and then a final vote.
Delaware, the colony that was split might very well decide the outcome, so they sent a courier to fetch the third delegate, Ceaser Rodney.
The messenger arrived at Rodney’s farm to tell him that he had seven hours to get back to Congress and vote. Rodney took his best horse and galloped into the night. He had eighty nine miles to go. They were difficult conditions with streams turned torrents, quagmires, and bad weather. Caeser had no change of horse but finally right before the vote was taken he was carried into the assembly room where he said these words:
“As I believe the voice of my constituents and of all sensible and honest men is in favor of independence, my own judgement concurs with them. I vote for independence.”
After the final vote it was twelve to none (New York had abstained). The colonies had become a country, with much thanks to Caeser Rodney.
I hope you enjoyed learning about these three heroes! Do you have a story of an unsung hero that you would like to share? Comment below!
Priscilla Joy