History's Unsung Heroes

Learn about the sisters who single handedly stopped the British from coming on their New Jersey shore during the Revolutionary War.   Sources:  1. www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=92392 historical marker data base Rebecca and Sara Stillwell, Women Heritage Trail  2. Dolin, Eric. Rebels At Sea. 30 May 2022. Highbridge. 3. Dorwart, Jeffrey. Cape May County, New Jersey: The Making of an American Resort Community 4. Mirnick, Barbara. New Jersey in the American Revolution 5. Mayers, Robert. Revolutionary New Jersey; Forgotten Towns and Crossroads. 6. Moses Griffin 1745-1802.  www.wikitree.com/Griffing-290  7. Shomette, Donald. Privateers of the Revolutionary War on the New Jersey Coast. 8. Smith, Sally. The Women of ‘76. Ontario. June 1976. 9. Women Patriots of the Revolution: A Biographical Dictionary.  

Learn about Nancy Harkness Love, the first female commercial pilot, founder of the Women's Flying Training Detachment and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) during World War II, from USA Today bestselling author Heather B. Moore. 

Learn about the amazing work of Phillis Wheatley, the mother of black literature in America. Sources: Sources  Carretta, Vincent. Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage. University of Georgia Press, 2011.  Wheatley, Phillis. ‘To a Lady and her Children, on the Death of her Son and their Brother’, 1773.  Hoose, Phillip M. We Were There Too. Phillip House, 2001.  Michals, Deborah. 2015. http://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/phillis-wheatley. Visited 4/16/2025  Waldstreicher, David. The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley. Recorded Books, 2023. 

Learn about one of American's most influential founding mothers, socialite and patriot, Elizabeth Willing Powel. 1. A Portrait of Elizabeth Willing Powel: 1743-1830, David Walker Maxey, (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2006), 17-19. 2. Elizabeth Willing Powel. Mount Vernon. Viewed February 3, 2025.http://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/elizabeth-willing-powel 3. "Elizabeth Willing Powel to Martha Hare, 25 April, 1814", Powel Family Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 4. Hass, Kimberly. Elizabeth Willing Powel: Philadelphia's Eighteenth Century Influencer. March 16, 2024.http://www. hiddencityphila.org/2024/03/elizabeth-willing-powel-philadelphias-18th-century-influencer/

Learn about the wife, mother, Quaker and Patriot Spy, Lydia Barrington Darragh. Sources: 1. Footon, George. "The World's Greatest Military Spies and Secret Service." 1917. 2. Hoose, Phillip. "We Were There Too." Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2001. 3. www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/lydia-barrington-darragh American Battlefield Trust Lydia Barrington  4. www.britannica.com/event/Quartering-Act  (2024) Quartering Act (2024)  5. www.revolutionary-war.net/lydia-darragh/ (Mar 2020) Lydia Darragh: Quaker, Pacifist and American Spy 

Sybil Ludington, the patriotic heroine who helped warn the colonists of the English invasion of Connecticut and New York. Sources:    Berton Braley, “Sybil Ludington’s Ride,” This Week magazine, Washington, D.C., 4 April 1940  David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994), 139. 6  Hoose, Phillip, We Were There, Too! (United States of American, 2001).  http://www.revolutionary-war.net/sybil-ludington/ Sybil Ludington  Martha J. Lamb, History of the City of New York: Volume 2 (New York, NY: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1880), 207. 5   Paula D. Hunt, “Sybil Ludington, the Female Paul Revere: The Making of a Revolutionary War Heroine,” The New England Quarterly 88, no. 2 (2015): pp. 187-222, https://doi.org/10.1162/tneq_a_00452), 190.  The Midnight Ride of Sybil Ludington: A Forgotten Hero in the Shadow of Paul Revere Jessica Rebollo Dr. Kate Murphy History 460/461: Senior Project June 12, 2019 

President Manuel Quezon was a lawyer, leader, and humanitarian who took in Jewish refugees during World War II. Sources:  Borneman, Walter. (2017). MacArthur at War: World War II in the Pacific. Back Bay Books.  Ephraim, Frank. (2003). Escape to Manila-From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror. Champaign, IL: The University of Illinois Press.  Jacobsen, G. (2004). We Refused to Die. Salt Lake City, Utah; University of Utah.  Harris, B. (2020). Philippine Sanctuary. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITsFFnht8Do GovPH-The Official Gazett Youtube Channel.  Legacy.senate.gov.ph/senators/senpres/quezon.asp Senate of the Philippines 19th Congress-Manuel Luis Quezon  http://www.loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1934PhilippineIndep.pdf THE PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE ACT (TYDINGS-MCDUFFIE ACT) 1934  Manila Bulletin Online: Manuel L. Quezon Timeline http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN9Lq10taGM&pp=ygUNTWFudWVs1H1F!ZXpvbg%3D%3D  Quezon's Game. Directed by Matthew E. Rosen, performed by Raymond Bagatsing. Star Cinema, iWant and Kinetek. 2018. 

After his journey across the sea to Jamestown, young Thomas Savage was thrust into the care of Chief Powhattan to learn the Algonquian ways and language. Learn more about the boy interpreter and his adventures with author Ora Smith. www.orasmith.com www.spiritoffreedompageant.com https://www.amazon.com/stores/Ora-Smith/author/B07KTDRQKL

Ever wonder about Pochantas's husband? John Rolfe was a shipwreck survivor, widower, tobacco planter, ambassador, Jamestown leader, and father. Learn about his incredible journey. Sources:  Carson, Jane. “The Will of John Rolfe.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 58, no. 1 (1950): 58–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4245674.   Fishwick, Marshall. “Jamestown.” April 23, 2019.  Historic Jamestowne. https://historicjamestowne.org   John Rolfe. https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/john-rolfe  “Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend.” Historic Jamestowne. Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service). https://www.nps.gov (Kidnapping of Pocahontas).  Smith, John. “A True Relation of Occurrences and Accidents in Virginia, 1608.”  Smith, John. “The General Historie of Viginia, New England and the Summer Isles.” 1624. Reprint in Jamestown Narratives, edited by Edward Wright Haile. Champlain, VA: Roundhouse, 1998. 

Learn about Anne Burras Layton, the first Englishwoman to arrive and survive in the New World. Link to First Lady of Jamestown. Amazon.com: First Lady of Jamestown: A Historical Romance Based on the Life and Adventures of Anne Burras, the First Englishwoman to Survive the New World: 9798989918300: Smith, Tracy: Books Sources  Cotter, John and J. Paul Hudson. “New Discoveries at Jamestown Site of the First Successful English Settlement in America.” January 1, 2008.  “England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” Database. Familysearch. http://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NB79-8WY.   Fishwick, Marshall. “Jamestown.” April 23, 2019.  Historic Jamestowne. https://historicjamestowne.org  Smith, John. “A True Relation of Occurances and Accidents in Virigia, 1608.”  Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend.” Historic Jamestowne. Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service). https:www.nps.gov.  “The Starving Time at Jamestown-Humans For Survival.” https://humansforsurvival.com  Smith, John. “Pochontas: My Own Story.” January 1, 2006.  Williams, Tony. “The Jamestown Experiment: The Remarkable Story of the Enterprising Colony and the Unexpected Results That Shaped America.” January 1, 2011. 

Learn more about Mary Dyer, the first and only female Quaker to be executed in America for her beliefs. sources: Burrough, Edward. “A Declaration of the Sad and Great Persecution and Martyrdom of the People of God, called Quakers, in New-England, for the Worshipping of God.”1661. http://www.ushistory.org Wiliam Penn.  Winsser, Johan. Quieting Mary Dyer: Edward Burrough and Dyer's Letter to the Massachusetts General Court. October 26, 1659  http://wams.nyhistory.org Women and the American Story. Life Story of Mary Dyer. 

Ever wonder who Squanto was and why he helped the Pilgrims? Join me for my first podcast, History's Unsung Heroes, The Story behind Squanto. Sources: http://www.history.com Who Was Squanto, and What was His Role in the First Thanksgiving?  http://www.biography.com Squanto  http://www.worldhistory.org Squanto in the Primary Sources  http://www.worldhistory.org Samoset