John Barry: Father of the American Navy

 

John Barry (March 25, 1745 – September 13, 1803) was an officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War and later in the United States Navy. He is often credited as "The Father of the American Navy". Barry was born in Tacumshane, County Wexford, Ireland and appointed a Captain in the Continental Navy on December 7, 1775. On the first list of Rank, Barry was not on it. Fortunately the Navy found more ships and posted a new list in which Barry was 7th out of 24. He commanded the Lexington, Raleigh, and Alliance. He and his crew of the Alliance fought and won the final naval battle of the American Revolution off the coast of Cape Canaveral on March 10, 1783. He was seriously wounded on May 29, 1781, while in command of Alliance during her capture of HMS Atalanta and Trepassey. Barry was successful in suppressing three mutinies during his career as an officer in the Continental Navy.

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Crispus Attucks: First Martyr of the American Revolution

Crispus Attucks (c. 1723 – March 5, 1770) was one of five people killed in the Boston Massacre in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been frequently named as the first martyr of the American Revolution and is the only Boston Massacre victim whose name is commonly remembered. He is regarded as an important and inspirational figure in American history.
 Attucks was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1723. Unusually tall for the era at six feet, two inches, Attucks was the son of an African American man and an American Indian woman. It is believed that he was the slave reported by the Boston Gazette, on October 2, 1750 who escaped from his master, William Brown, at the age of 27. Apparently, Attucks had a passion for freedom for himself and for the colonies to decide their own destiny. Perhaps this motivated him to march the streets of Boston advocating America’s independence from England. His activities gave him a place in history as the first among “five martyrs” who fell during the night of the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.

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Ethan Allen: Hero of the Green Mountain Boys

Ethan Allen (January 21, 1738 – February 12, 1789) was a farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, and American Revolutionary War patriot, hero, and politician.
Allen was an early American revolutionary and guerrilla leader who, before the war, fought against the Province of New York's attempts to take control of the New Hampshire Grants. He is probably most widely known for founding the Green Mountain Boys and leading their participation in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775, and for later political and military activities leading first to the formation of the Vermont Republic and then to Vermont's statehood (although the latter did not occur until after his death).

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William Alexander: "The Bravest Man In America"

William Alexander (1726 New York City – January 15, 1783), who claimed the disputed title of Earl of Stirling, was an American major-general during the American Revolutionary War.
Alexander was an educated, ambitious and bright young man and was proficient in mathematics and astronomy.

He joined his mother in a successful provisioning business and, in 1747, married Sarah Livingston, the daughter of Philip Livingston (1686-1749) and sister of Governor William Livingston. The couple had two daughters. One of his daughters, Mary Alexander, would marry wealthy merchant, Robert Watts of New York. During the French and Indian War, he joined the British Army Commissariat, where he became aide-de-camp to Governor William Shirley.

He traveled to London in 1756 to testify on behalf of Shirley, who was facing charges of dereliction of duty.

 

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Samuel Adams: American Firebrand

Samuel Adams (September 27 [O.S. September 16] 1722 – October 2, 1803) was a statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As a politician in colonial Massachusetts, Adams was a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and was one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to John Adams.

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