{"id":4415,"date":"2014-04-15T18:23:16","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T18:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/?p=4415"},"modified":"2014-04-15T18:32:16","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T18:32:16","slug":"hypocrite-lecteur-deborah-sampson-gannett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/2014\/04\/15\/hypocrite-lecteur-deborah-sampson-gannett\/","title":{"rendered":"Hypocrite Lecteur: Deborah Sampson Gannett"},"content":{"rendered":"

I cannot desire you to adopt the example of our Heroine, should the like occasion offer ; yet, we must do her justice. (Mann 116)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus speaks Herman Mann, the author of The Female Review: or, Memoirs of an American Young Lady<\/strong> (1797), whose opinions in addition to his doubly-masculine name indicate his deep disapproval of his subject, Deborah Sampson Gannett, \"GannettTitle\"<\/a>\u00a0an unusual woman \u201cwhose life and character are peculiarly distinguished\u2014Being a continental soldier for nearly three years in the late American war\u201d (Mann 1).<\/p>\n

That’s right, folks\u2014here, after looking at the indomitable Henry Tufts, we have yet another unlikely veteran of the American Revolution, this time a woman, who, finding herself too constrained by society, \u201cdetermined to burst the bands, which, it must be confessed, have too often held her sex in awe\u201d (Mann 110), and \u201cjoin[ed] the American Army in the character of a voluntary soldier\u201d (114), \u201cenrolled by the name of ROBERT SHURTLIEFF\u201d (Mann 129).<\/p>\n

Sound fascinating? Certainly. Brave? Undoubtedly. Improper? Ask Mann. Mann must ask the question of what to do with this woman war hero, as it is his self-appointed task to tell of Gannett’s actions, but his disapproval is apparent everywhere, beginning with a disclaimer that he writes \u201cnot with intentions to encourage the like paradigm of FEMALE ENTERPRISE\u2014but because such a thing, in the course of nature, has occurred\u201d (Mann iii). Get the picture? Don’t anybody get any ideas. You’re only hearing this story because it’s true. It happened, and Gannett did fine, and served her country with honor, but Mann doesn’t want to risk indicating approval.<\/p>\n

Mann does, however, intend to influence the conduct of American women, with his text becoming by intention one of instruction. He begins by saying \u201cthere are but two degrees in the characters of mankind, that seem to arrest the attention of the public. The first is that of him, which is the most distinguished in laudable and virtuous achievements. . . The second, that of him, who has arrived to the greatest pitch of vice and wickedness\u201d (Mann v), and that \u201cwhilst the former ever demands our love and imitation, the other should serve to fortify our minds against its own attacks.\u201d Stories of virtue and stories of vice can all lead you to virtue. Mann doesn’t say which he thinks this story is, though, and when we consider that Henry Tufts speaks in the same way of his criminal autobiography, \u201cthat [the life] of the vicious, affords, also, instruction, by showing effects of vice and immorality\u201d (Tufts vii), regard doesn’t seem too high for Gannett in The Female Review.<\/p>\n

However, it seems that others were not so reluctant in praising her. She made headlines for several years, for, as reported in 1797,\u201cshe had served as a soldier in the American army, during the war, had been wounded in the service, and therefore prayed a pension, as being unable any longer to support herself\u201d (\u201cThe Time Piece\u201d 3). This had already caught the attention of the press even as early as 1792, with an article saying in March that \u201cfrom the feelings which appeared on the occasion, expressive to reward heroism like hers, there is no room to doubt that a compensation will be granted, adequate to her services, and honourable to the government\u201d (\u201cFemale Heroism\u201d 110).<\/p>\n

The press seems proud of Gannett, taking her accomplishment as an act of patriotic heroism, and the best further evidence for this appears in The Time Piece and Literary Companion of December 4, 1797 in the form of a poem, \u201cOn Deborah Gannett,\u201d which identifies her as \u201cthe American heroine,\u201d while praising Gannett as \u201cHER, who never war did fear,\u201d asking us to<\/p>\n

Reflect\u2014how many tender ties
\nA woman must forego
\nEre to the field of war she flies,
\nTo meet a savage foe\u2014
\nHow many bars has nature plac’d,
\nAnd custom many more
\nThat women never should be grac’d
\nWith honors won from war.
\nAll these she nobly overcame. . . (\u201cOn Deborah Gannett\u201d 2)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gannett overcame, at least when it came to the prejudice of the press. This woman war hero was a paragon of virtue. However, public opinion notwithstanding, Gannett apparently still needed to seek some means of support, and still needed to reconcile herself with her actions, delivering a speech in Boston, March 1802, \"GannettAddressTitle\"<\/a>which was then printed and bound in our volume of The Female Review. Here we finally see her as she saw herself, and she abruptly shows herself to be a harsher critic of herself than Mann, saying of her experience \u201cI recollect it with a kind of satisfaction, which no one can better conceive and enjoy than him, who, recollecting the good intentions of a bad deed, lives to see and to correct any indecorum of his life\u201d (Gannett 7).<\/p>\n

Her military service now a \u201cbad deed,\u201d Gannet says \u201cI therefore yield every claim of honor and distinction to the hero and patriot, who met the foe in his own name\u201d (Gannett 23), finally falling back on conservative, rather British orthodoxy, stating that \u201cthe field and the cabinet are the proper spheres assigned for our MASTERS and our LORDS ; may we, also, deserve the dignified title and encomium of MISTRESS and LADY, in our kitchens and in our parlours\u201d (Gannett 28-29), sounding just as British as an 1801 British text on education, which states that young women \u201cshould rather be encouraged, by all means, to cultivate those tastes which can attach \"GannettEdgeworthPage\"<\/a>them to their home, and which can preserve them from the miseries of dissipation\u201d (Edgeworth 7).<\/p>\n

What then can we do with Deborah Gannett? We cannot entirely praise her as a hero against her society, nor as a perfectly liberated American revolutionary\u2014because of her own vehement repudiation of her own self-liberating actions\u2014and nor could her contemporaries\u2014herself included\u2014praise her as a model of virtue, any more than they could praise the like of Henry Tufts, because of the very actions which we find praiseworthy. Perhaps we cannot take away \u201cvirtue\u201d from Gannett any more than others could in her own time; perhaps it would be naive to take this as an indication of \u201chow far we’ve come;\u201d but perhaps what is most important is that we can see a widespread debate over Gannett and gender playing out within these contemporary texts: texts fascinated with Gannett and her accomplishments, texts taking up the story because of its patriotic value; texts thus wanting to praise Gannett at times, but texts in a society that could not accept her, tragically leading to her rejection of herself.\"GannettFinis\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Better than a hero, and more than a moral counterweight, then, Gannett is historical. Leaving moral considerations and questions of virtue or vice or heroism behind, let us regard her as such.<\/p>\n

Daniel Allie is a senior undergraduate student in English. For his blog
\nseries Hypocrite Lecteur<\/i>\u00a0<\/strong>he will spend the Spring 2014\u00a0Semester\u00a0exploring\u00a0nineteenth-century literature\u00a0in a variety of genres
\nfrom\u00a0the Rare Books Collection housed in Archives and Special Collections at the
\nDodd Research Center.<\/em><\/p>\n

Works Cited
\nEdgeworth, Maria and R.L. Practical Education: Volume 3. London: J. Johnson, 1801. Print. [Dodd Center call number: B3726]<\/p>\n

\u201cFemale Heroism.\u201d The New York Magazine, or Literary Repository 3.4 (April 1792): 110. American Periodicals. Web. 04 April 2014.<\/p>\n

Gannett, Deborah Sampson. \u201cAn address, delivered with applause, at the Federal-Street Theatre, Boston, four successive nights.\u201d Dedham: Herman Mann, 1802. Print. [Dodd Center call number: A571 (same volume as Female Review)]<\/p>\n

Mann, Herman. The Female Review: or, Memoirs of an American young lady. Dedham: Nathaniel and Benjamin Heaton, 1797. Print. [Dodd Center call number: A571]<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Deborah Gannett.\u201d The Time Piece, and Literary Companion, 2.35 (December 4, 1797): 2. American Periodicals. Web. 04 April 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Time Piece.\u201d The Time Piece, and Literary Companion 2.34 (December 1, 1797): 3. American Periodicals. Web. 04 April 2014.<\/p>\n

Tufts, Henry. A narrative of the life, adventures, travels and sufferings of Henry Tufts. Dover: Samuel Bragg, 1807. Print. [Dodd Center call number: A1838]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I cannot desire you to adopt the example of our Heroine, should the like occasion offer ; yet, we must do her justice. (Mann 116) Thus speaks Herman Mann, the author of The Female Review: or, Memoirs of an American … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[184,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4415"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4423,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4415\/revisions\/4423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}