‘For instance,’ [Meryl Streep] says, forking at a bread-crumbed oyster, ‘we are taught about Benedict Arnold, the first traitor in America, but I’ve never heard—until I went onto the [National Women’s History Museum] Web site—about Deborah Sampson, the first woman to take a bullet for her nation. She was 21 years old in the Revolutionary War. She enlisted on the American side under a man’s name, wore boys’ clothing, was cut with a British saber across her forehead, and took a musket ball in her thigh.’ She’s a good storyteller, with a warm, urgent voice. ‘And her compatriots carried her six miles to the doctor’s, and he stitched up her head and she wouldn’t let him take her pants off—because he would discover she was a woman!’ So did she die of her wound? ‘No—she was very good with her needle, so she cut the musket ball out and sewed her own leg up and served another eighteen months. In 1783 she was discharged, went home and had three children.’ Sampson was granted £34 by the state of Massachusetts for exhibiting ‘an extraordinary instance of feminine heroism by discharging the duties of a faithful, gallant soldier, and at the same time preserving the virtue and chastity of her sex unsuspected and unblemished.’ Amazing story. ‘And I am 60 years old and I learn this story,’ says Streep. ‘I should have learned that story in the fourth grade. Because it helps you as a child to know that it is not just Paul Revere riding a horse and calling, ‘The British are coming, the British are coming.’ It’s not just Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and the battles won, it’s the bravery of all these people that are undiscovered, unknown.’

  1. meishuu a reblogué ce billet depuis home-of-amazons
  2. wyvorpion13 a reblogué ce billet depuis home-of-amazons
  3. home-of-amazons a reblogué ce billet depuis thatluciegirl
  4. chimera-of-mine a reblogué ce billet depuis boredbird et a ajouté :
    This woman is a hero.
  5. boredbird a reblogué ce billet depuis aimmyarrowshigh
  6. there-was-a-girl a reblogué ce billet depuis seriouslyamerica
  7. slash-monster a reblogué ce billet depuis raphaellaskies
  8. beingestella a reblogué ce billet depuis if-our-worlds-collide
  9. if-our-worlds-collide a reblogué ce billet depuis jessjat
  10. jessjat a reblogué ce billet depuis catherinelefay
  11. queereyes-queerminds a reblogué ce billet depuis espill et a ajouté :
    I’ve reblogged this before, but I don’t care. Meryl Streep is perfect, and Deborah Sampson is amazing, and fuck the way...
  12. jaquenetta-andrews a reblogué ce billet depuis mmmayhemspeaks
  13. motheringsundays a reblogué ce billet depuis khaleesi
  14. keepdancingonmyown a reblogué ce billet depuis lesbianoutlaw
  15. theplayfulmisspellings a reblogué ce billet depuis monalisafrank
  16. mycrazyupsidedownworld a reblogué ce billet depuis bathcrone
  17. muckrak a reblogué ce billet depuis goingnorthsoon
  18. everybodyhasatheory a reblogué ce billet depuis asusualfiona
  19. undermycamoskirt a reblogué ce billet depuis karnythia
  20. limehead21 a reblogué ce billet depuis tealcheesecake
  21. goingnorthsoon a reblogué ce billet depuis tealcheesecake
  22. marryykate a reblogué ce billet depuis tealcheesecake
  23. yesterdaystommorrow a reblogué ce billet depuis tealcheesecake
  24. droitgauche a reblogué ce billet depuis tealcheesecake
  25. ejonesgerald a reblogué ce billet depuis purpleishboots
  26. little-disasters a reblogué ce billet depuis tealcheesecake
  27. purpleishboots a reblogué ce billet depuis tealcheesecake
  28. tealcheesecake a reblogué ce billet depuis brieforbreakfast