Early in 1775, the British King and Parliament - in response to the Boston Tea Party - imposed the
Intolerable Acts
on the American colonies, effecting military occupation of Boston and a shutdown of its port until such time as the city agreed to pay for the destroyed goods. Far from alienating the city, these acts pushed the Americans into an active, open resistance of the British and left each family with an unenviable decision - support the rebels, remain loyal to the crown or favor neither. At the time over half of America’s two million plus population was under the age of sixteen. A draft of all boys between the ages of 16 and 19 was enacted to fill the ranks of the Continental Army, leaving further voids - which were necessarily filled by teenage girls - in American homes. These circumstances meant that teenagers played an essential role not only in militias and at sea but also on the home front and in the Army itself. Taken from first-hand accounts, this book relates the Revolutionary War experiences of twenty-three teenagers. From Massachusetts to South Carolina, these young men and women provide a fascinating, varied look at America’s fight for independence and their role in this struggle for liberty. Israel Trask joined the militia at the age of ten and, by the time, he turned twelve was serving at sea. A fifteen-year-old girl from Connecticut, Abigail Foote, wove cloth, sewed clothes, weeded the garden and made cheese, providing much needed clothing and food. Thirteen-year-old Henry Yeager barely escaped hanging for his army role as drummer. Dicey Langston, only sixteen when the war began, risked her life to pass loyalist information to the patriots. Editorial comments function to clarify time and place while direct quotes from journals and memoirs are used whenever possible. To further aid the reader, appendices provide a chronology of events and a glossary of sailing terms. The work is also indexed.