Nancy Hart Research Papers

Nancy Hart

A frontierswoman in Georgia during the American Revolution who should be seen as one of the most important women of the time, is Nancy Hart. She is an unsung hero whose mission was to get rid of Loyalists in Georgia’s territory. Hart was also a spy for the Patriot army and is very well known in Georgia but not as much in other parts of the United States. She is unsung because so little was documented about her early life and most people showed interest in her towards the end of her life and after she died. Also many courageous actions she took do not have specific details or they are told in different ways. Nancy Hart deserves to be seen as an important part of the American Revolution because she delivered messages to the Patriots

Little is known about her birth and some parts are not confirmed or simply theories. The exact date of her birth is either not available or debatable. Her birthplace is also up for debate as he was born in either Pennsylvania or North Carolina but grew up in North Carolina. She was known as Nancy which is a nickname for Ann. She is also known to have been called “Aunt Nancy” and Wahatche or “war woman” (Ouzts). It is said that she might have been related to Revolutionary War general Daniel Morgan, possibly her cousin, and Daniel Boone but there is no evidence that supports it (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica.) She is also said to have been both cross-eyed and illiterate, but neither stopped her from becoming the unsung hero she is today. Hart had red hair and stood six feet tall when she had stopped growing. She was also reported to be very muscular and many paintings from around the time period that she lived in show her as appearing masculine

Later, she had found the Methodist religion. Many of her neighbors and friends observed her religious behavior. The former Governor reports that she, “went to the house of worship in search of relief. She . . . became a shouting Christian, [and] fought the Devil as manfully as she had [once] fought the Tories,” (Ouzts). The Governor’s mother knew Hart personally and in the article by Ouzts, she is called a “indomitable” woman, meaning impossible to defeat. Hart moved to Brunswick with her family around 1790, the late 1790s most likely, and her husband died later. Instead of staying in the new location, Hart planned on moving back to her original home, but it had been washed away from a flood. After moving around a bit with her son, John, she went with John and the rest of her family to Kentucky in order to live near their relatives in Henderson County. It was 1803 when they had moved there and Hart died in 1830 at the age of 96 years old. She was buried outside of Henderson County in her family