When Americans think about the American Revolution, certain names come quickly to mind--George Washington, Paul Revere, and Samuel Adams. These men deserve to be remembered, yet their stories do not give us a clear picture of what life was like for the average person during the years before, during, and immediately after the war. Typical history books do not describe how a nine-year-old Massachusetts boy might have felt when his friend was killed in the Boston Massacre or what went through the mind of a teenage Quaker girl when her family fled Philadelphia. These are the kinds of stories you will find in this book. Many of these children not only survived the war but played an active role in it. Sometimes a war's greatest heroes are its survivors, those who manage to forge new lives despite the tragedy they have experienced. History books usually do not describe how a nine-year-old Massachusetts boy might have felt when his friend was killed in the Boston Massacre or what went through the mind of a teenage Quaker girl when her family fled Philadelphia. Children like these found themselves on the edge of the fray-both in combat and in the throes of daily life-helping, or simply enduring, as best their interrupted youths allowed. Their behind-the-scenes stories illustrate what it was really like for children during the Revolutionary War. Meet Frances Slocum, a five-year-old girl captured and raised by Native Americans; James Fortune, a free African American who at the age of fifteen enlisted on a government-commissioned ship; and Deborah Samson, who, at twenty, dressed in men's clothes and joined the Continental army. Learn the inspiring stories of American children who displayed courage, devotion, and wisdom during the colonies' fight for freedom. Scotti McAuliff Cohn is a freelance writer and editor living in Bloomington, Illinois. She is the author of two picture books for young children: One Wolf Howls (Sylvan Dell Publishing, 2009) and Big Cat, Little Kitty (Sylvan Dell Publishing, 2011). She has also written eight books published by the Globe Pequot Press, including It Happened in Chicago, Chicago Curiosities, and Illinois: Mapping the Prairie State through History . Her other books for Globe include Beyond Their Years: Stories of 16 Civil War Children, Liberty's Children: Stories of 11 Revolutionary War Children, It Happened in North Carolina, and More than Petticoats: Remarkable North Carolina Women. Christopher Hawkins grabbed the rail as the Eagle heaved and lurched under his feet. Another salty wave smacked his face. The thirteen-year-old Rhode Island boy had spent the past five months getting his sea legs. Now he wondered whether those legs would continue to hold him upright. Even the more experienced sailors were sliding across the slick deck. The storm blasted the Eagle throughout the evening and into the next day. The second night, the crew had to throw six of the heaviest cannons overboard to lighten the vessel. There was nothing to eat or drink on deck except bad water. As evening drew near again, some of the crew asked Captain Mawry Potter if there was any food down below. He told them Christopher, the cabin boy, would know best. Crew members opened the hatch and helped Christopher down into the companionway--a stairway leading to the deck below. He gathered as much food and drink as he could find, and the sailors hauled him up again. "This was a very small meal for each of the crew when divided," Christopher wrote years later in his memoirs. "And nothing else could be obtained through the dismal and painful night ensuing -- the gale was hard so that ev'ry one was either lashed to some part of the vessel, or clung to some of her rigging -- no one slept." Used Book in Good Condition