Brave Enemies Thesis

In the novel Brave Enemies by Robert Morgan, the book accurately portrays the American Revolution. This paper will discuss the novel and how it is accurate to American history. Topics that will be discussed, how the Patriots and Loyalists treated each other, woman becoming soldiers, and combat formations in the war.
Once the Declaration of Independence was created the colonies immediately split in to two groups, Patriots and Loyalist. Loyalists made up 30% to 50% of the population in the colonies. This percentage was made up of farmers, poor settlers, rich merchants, and immigrants who trusted the British government would still protect them. In Brave Enemies, this is shown through brief occurrences of Patriots torturing, raping, burning, hanging, and humiliating Loyalists. The Loyalists did the same to the Patriots. One scene in Brave Enemies shows a group of men covering an old woman in hot tar and dumping feathers on her and letting her run back to her home.
During The American Revolution at the Battle of
Most were the wives, prostitutes, mistresses, common laws or married to other soldiers. They helped and supported the most with nursing the wounded, helping load artillery and cooking and cleaning. Few women pretended to be men to serve in the army. The only thing they had to do to pass off as a man was to wear pants, bind their chests and maybe cut their hair. One of the best examples of women that disguised as men was Deborah Sampson of Massachusetts. She served in New York towards the end of the war for seventeen months and was wounded twice before being discharged. The Point in the book that accurately portrays this is when Josie cuts her hair and steals Mr. Griffin’s clothes. As she goes to leave he mother catches her and doesn’t seem to recognize her. This is also shown when soldiers showed up to John and Josie’s house on Pine knot Branch several times and see her as