Deborah Samson Gannett: Identifying Patriotism in America

[gottaB]

Yesterday morning on the tube I watched a talk by Carl Mack who advocated the study of Black history, and illustrated the need for it by pointing to text books that had whitewashed the Revolutionary War. He cited examples of Crispus Attucks' heroic sacrifice being downplayed in recent accounts, of battles being painted as if all the soldiers were white when that just wasn't true, and of many African Americans who made brave and invaluable contributions to the birth of our republic.

Among the people Mack mentioned was Deborah Samson Gannett (also spelled "Sampson"). Her story intriqued me so I did a little googling, and the thing is, most accounts online don't mention her race, which in America is typically a sign of Whiteness. According to some comments made on Minerva, Samson had Caucasian ancestors who came over on the Mayflower--but these arguments are not asbolutely definitive.

Which brings me to my present point. What does it matter? I mean, I know why it matters for us to realize that Blacks and women founded our nation (and some White guys too). But if Samson's critical historical identity is that of a cross-dressing Patriot, what's to say that race for her wasn't yet another mask? Her struggles, to be free of servitude, of religious dogma, of an unjust foreign occupation, of institutional sexism: These are struggles we can all identify with. We could toss in her struggle to be free of racial oppression, if we knew her race to be not-White, but the truth is you never needed to be Black to be an Abolitionist or a Patriot in America. I say let Samson be colorless, or rather let her be all the colors we are, a prism of American patriotism that symbolizes our struggle to identify ourselves for ourseleves.

Misgivings. Jessica Lynch, Lori Piestewa, Shoshanna Johnson. You know the drill.

[dwckabal]

1. Unfortunately

all the history most people learn comes from their high school textbooks, which are notorious for painting history (especially US history) with a very broad white male brush. And if your not a white male, that leads to some very tedious history lessons, indeed.