American Revolution Posters, Prints & Charts, pg 3/7
for social studies classrooms, history buffs and reenactors.

Abigail Adams
John Adams
Samuel Adams
Ethan Allen

Benedict Arnold
Crispus Attucks
Ann Eliza Bleecker

Abigail Adams

Abigail Adams
b. 11-11-1744; Weymouth, MA
d. 1818

Poster Text: Abigail Adams is the only woman in history who was both the wife and mother of a U.S. President. ... Throughout her long public life, Abigail Adams wrote hundreds of letters. ... In one letter to her husband she wrote that “all men would be tyrants if they could.” Therefore, she insisted, a statement of the rights of women should be included in the Declaration of Independence.

• Abigail Adams posters
• more Great American Women posters

John Adams
b. 10-30-1735; Braintree, MA
d. 7-4-1826; Braintree, MA

Adams was elected the 2nd president of the US, and he and his wife Abigail were the parents of future US president, John Quincy Adams.

John Adams quotes ~
• “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” ‘Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials,’ December 1770

Samuel Adams
b. 9-27-1722; Boston, MA
d. 10-2-1803; Boston, MA

Founding Father Samuel Adams, a second cousin of John Adams, was active in the Sons of Liberty and instrumental in shaping the political will to separate from England, as well as keeping the flame under events like the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party. Adams was also a “maltser”, someone who prepared the malt for brewing beer.

Samuel Adams quotes ~
• “Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.”
• “He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon will be, void of all regard for his country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty of betraying his country, who had not before lost the feeling of moral obligations in his private connections.”
• “Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.”
• “It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
• “Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property;together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.”

Ethan Allen
b. 1-10-1738; Litchfield, CT
d. 2-12-1789; Vermont

Farmer, philosopher, writer, and land speculator Ethan Allen, along with Benedict Arnold, captured the British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga with its artillery and strategic position at Lake Champlain on May 10, 1775.

Ethan Allen quote ~
• “In those parts of the world where learning and science has prevailed, miracles have ceased; but in those parts of it as are barbarous and ignorant, miracles are still in vogue.”

Benedict Arnold
b. 1-14-1741; Norwich, CT
d. 6-14-1801; London

Benedict Arnold, originally a valued American general, was part of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, lead an expedition into Canada, and lost a leg in the Battle of Saratoga. His name is now synonymous with treason.

He conspired with British officer, John Andre (1750-1780) to turn the strategic Hudson River fortifications at West Point over to the British. The plot was discovered - Arnold escaped and Andre was executed.

Benedict Arnold quote ~
• “Neglected by Congress below, distressed with the small-pox; want of Generals and discipline in our Army, which may rather be called a great rabble, our credit and reputation lost, and great part of the country; and a powerful foreign enemy advancing upon us, are so many difficulties we cannot surmount them.”

Ann Eliza Bleecker
(née Schuyler)
b. October, 1752; NYC, Province of New York
d. 11-23-1783; Albany

The lives of the Bleecker family were interrupted by the American Revolution - in 1777 the British troops under John Burgoyne lead John Bleecker to join the New York militia and Ann Eliza to flee their home north of Albany with their two young daughters. The war took a huge personal toll on Eliza's family, (mother, sister, youngest daughter died, and a miscarriage) and she died at age 31.

Born into the privilege and wealth of American Dutch aristocracy, she had her talents as a writer recognized and encouraged by her family. Her husband, John Bleecker (1745-1795), a former lawyer turned gentleman farmer, also supported what he called “her genius”.

Ann Eliza Bleecker's work was published posthumously by her surviving daugher Margaretta, also a writer.

Joseph Brant, Chief of the Mohawks, 1742-1807, Giclee Print, George Romney

Joseph Brant
b. 1742; Ohio, near present day Akron
d. 11-24-1807; Ontario, Canada

Native American Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) was a Mohawk leader and British military officer during the American Revolution. Brant is best remembered in US history for his attacks on settlers in on the western frontier and in Canada for trying to regain indigenous lands. Brant, perhaps the most well-known North American Indian of his generation, met both George Washington and King George III. His portrait was painted by English artist George Romney, 1775-1776.

Aaron Burr
b. 2-6-1756; Newark, NJ
d. 9-14-1836; Staten Island, NY

Aaron Burr participated in major engagements during the Revolutionary War including the Battle of Quebec, the evacuation of Continental army from Manhattan to Harlem and the Battle of Monmouth. He would go on to serve as Jefferson's vice president, be aquitted of murder charges for Alexander Hamilton's death in a dual, and for treason. Burr was the grandson of colonial theologian Jonathan Edwards.

Aaron Burr quotes ~
• “Never do today what you can do tomorrow. Something may occur to make you regret your premature action.”
• “The rule of my life is to make business a pleasure, and pleasure my business.”

• Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr

George Rogers Clark
b. 11-19-1752; Albemarle Co., Virginia
d. 2-13-1818; Louisville, KY (stroke)

George Rogers Clark was the highest ranking American military officer on the frontier during the American Revolutionary War.

Clark led militia in the capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes in present day Illinois and Indiana respectively, which weakened the British presence in the Old Northwest; his later career was ruined by accusations of drunkeness.

George Rogers Clark was the older brother of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition into the Louisiana Purchase.

• George Rogers Clark and the War in the West