What Does Christian Faith Have to Do With the Revolutionary War?

LOVE – FAITH – LIBERTY! That’s why patriots sacrificed everything to fight America’s Revolutionary War. Two of those patriots were Samuel Benjamin and Tabitha Livermore. My new book is the true story of their love, faith, and fight for liberty. Samuel and Tabitha had to pick a side based on their love of each other, their faith in God, their families, and the liberty they could only dream about. They were just like you and me. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our great nation, we must understand, that the patriots declared their independence in 1776. But they weren’t truly free of the tyranny of the British Crown and its’ redcoats until September of 1783. Samuel and Tabitha, their communities, were on the frontlines of the sacrifice for liberty. The fight included the struggle for religious liberty and freedom from the Church of England with the King as the head of the church and colonists forced to tithe by the government. The Continental Congress opened in prayer on its second day of meeting on September 6^th, 1774, months before Lexington and Concord. ^[1] And called for National days of thanksgiving and of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer" at least twice a year throughout the war. So it was that faith guided Samuel and Tabitha. They aren’t the famous names many of us know from American history. But it was tens of thousands of Christians like Samuel and Tabitha who fought and won the Revolutionary War. Samuel picked up a musket, a bayonet, and wielded a sword as a man of Christian faith. He wrote more than four-dozen bible verses in the back of one of his war diaries. He was in the Corps of Light Infantry which historian Michael Sheehan calls "The Navy Seals of the Day."

I am eternally thankful to Lt. Benjamin and his sweetheart, Tabitha Livermore, who are my 4^th great grandparents as well as their fellow compatriots and families. Samuel’s younger brothers, Jonathan and John, also served as soldiers. They represent the sacrifice made by tens of thousands of common people for the ideal of liberty – freedom from the rule of a King. 25,000 souls made the ultimate sacrifice. Their blood was spilled over 13 years, including the Boston Massacre. Amazingly, Lt. Benjamin survived serving for more than seven of those years during multiple battles, disease, and other hardships to help found the United States. His service began at the Battle of Lexington in 1775 as a Minute Man from Watertown, Massachusetts. It ended with the Continental Army’s decisive victory at Yorktown, which proved to be the turning point in the war against the British monarchy. Because of the sacrifice of Samuel, Tabitha, and their fellow patriots our nation remains a shining light to the world. The great American experiment began with imperfection, and much work is left to be done, as we continue to strive “to form a more perfect union.” What drives someone to leave home, family, and the incredible woman he loves, and plunge themselves into danger time and time again not over a matter of months, but over a matter of years? Why would the woman on the other side of the equation put up with it? How did she endure the torture of loving someone who submitted themselves to the possibility of death repeatedly for an ideal? And yet, that’s what brave Tabitha did. You will also read about other incredible women who served the army as camp followers as well as a few who were the first women to engage in combat. But like most women of the Revolutionary War, Tabitha helped her mother and father work the Homefront taking care of younger siblings and the family farm. She joined the Daughters of Liberty and came from a town that made its’ abolitionists views official. To share a sense of that commitment to the cause of liberty, I have included verbatim portions of Benjamin’s diary, and images of pages from that same diary, into this work of historical non-fiction. His letters to Tabitha, and from her, are my own creation based on his diary entries, family history, as well as the work of many historians.

I am thankful for the passion and diligence of scholars of American history. The characters in my creative nonfiction novel were real people. I refer to indigenous people as Indians, and people of color as negroes, because it was the vernacular of their time. Misspellings in Samual’s letters are intentional in keeping with his habit of misspelling words in his diaries. As far as the battles, I have sought to be as accurate as possible. But I’ve also taken a little creative license to serve the story. A list of references follows at the end of my literary labor of love for, and devotion to, our great United States of America. The love shared by Samuel Benjamin and Tabitha Livermore of colonial Massachusetts was battle tested. He referred to Tabitha in his war diary as T.L. Did he use only her initials to protect her from the enemy should his diary fall into enemy hands? We’ll never know. But an example,  an image from his diary, is seen above, “Sent a letter to Capt. Brewer and one to T.L.”  You’ll learn about Captain Brewer in the pages ahead. After the war, Samuel, and Tabitha, married, and settled in Livermore, Massachusetts which in 1820 changed from being a Massachusetts district to the separate state of Maine. Samuel and Tabitha parented six sons and four daughters. I descended from one of those daughters, Betsey Benjamin.

^[1] First Prayer of the Continental Congress, Office of the Chaplain, United States House of Representatives, https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/URLs_Cited/OT2013/12-696/12-696-2.PDF

^[2] Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, The brary of Congress,

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel04.html#:~:text=Congress%20also%20proclaimed%20days%20of%20thanksgiving%20and,agreement%20with%20a%20nation%20and%20its%20people.