Who was Deborah Samson?

During the course of this blog I will be completing a research project about Herman Mann’s The Female Review. Mann’s text is his biographical interpretation of the life of Deborah Samson, a Massachusetts citizen that dressed like a man in order to participate in the American Revolutionary army.

There is some controversy among Samson followers in relation to Mann’s biography, arguing that Mann’s account is highly fictionalized and thus a misrepresentation. Since the actual person Deborah Samson and Mann’s account of her intrigue me, one of the things my blog will be exploring is Mann’s text in connection to the actual person.