Female Review, The.
[Sampson, Deborah]. Mann, Herman. The Female Review: Or, Memoirs of an American young Lady; whose life and character are peculiarly distinguished—being a continental soldier, for nearly three years, in the late American War. During which time she performed the duties of every department, into which she was called with punctual exactness, fidelity and honor, and preserved her chastity inviolate, by the most artful concealment of her sex. With an appendix, containing characteristic traits, by different hands; her taste for economy, principles of domestic education &c. By a citizen of Massachusetts. Dedham: Heaton, for the author, 1797.
12mo.; engraved frontispiece portrait; bound in later full calf with new endpapers; some foxing and browning, a good tight copy.
First edition: Howes M257, Sabin 44314, Evans 32417. Deborah Sampson (1760-1827) was born near Plymouth, Massachusetts, a descendant of Governor Bradford and Myles Standish. On May 20, 1782, dressed as a man, she enlisted in the Continental forces and became a member of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment under the name of Robert Shurtlieff. “She participated in several battles and was wounded near Tarrytown, NY. Not until she was hospitalized with a fever, was her sex discovered... She was discharged at West Point on Oct. 25, 1783.” Upon release, she returned home in female attire, married Benjamin Gannett, and had three children. In 1805, as was her due, Sampson received a Federal pension.
Sampson told her story to Herman Mann, who wrote it down; the book was published anonymously, the title page stating only “By a citizen of Massachusetts.”
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