AMERICA 250

REMEMBERING JOHN GREENWOOD, JAMES FORTEN, AND JOHNNY MICKLEY

Years ago I wrote three books about the Revolutionary War. Today I'm honoring the memory of these inspiring young heroes.

After hearing about the Battles of Lexington and Concord, fifteen-year-old John Greenwood walked 150 miles from Falmouth, Maine to Boston to "fight for his country." He earned his keep by playing his fife when he stopped at taverns on his long journey. He fifed for soldiers as they fought battles in Canada and New Jersey, then joined the war at sea.  He was captured four times but always managed to escape. John Greenwood only received six months pay for this twenty months in the army. He never asked for more money and was proud of the part he played in the fight for America's independence. Later he gained fame as George Washington's personal dentist.

As a young free African American in Philadelphia, James Forten heard the Declaration of Independence read for the first time. At age fifteen he took a job on an American ship that was captured by the British. He made friends with the captain's son and continually beat him at the game of marbles. The British captain was impressed by James and offered to send him to England to be educated. James turned him down, saying "I have been taken prisoner for the liberties of my country. I will never prove a traitor to her." He was sent to the prison ship Jersey which was a horribly crowded, filthy vessel docked in what would later become Brooklyn Navy Yard. Many prisoners died of starvation and disease there. James survived, saved another boy's life, and after the war excelled. He became one of the wealthiest men in Philadelphia, was active in the anti-slavery movement, and helped fund the famous abolitionist newspaper the Liberator.

Eleven-year-old Johnny Mickley helped save what became known as our Liberty Bell from being melted down by the British for musket shot or cannons. At great risk, he and his father smuggled the State House Bell out of Philadelphia on their straw-covered farm wagon before General Howe's troops invaded. Years later imagine the stories he must have told his grandchildren, and they their grandchildren, about his role in rescuing one of our country's most important symbols.

Thank you, John Greenwood, James Forten, and Johnny Mickley!