Jan 26

Jan 26 Georgia's Fighting Founding Mother - Nancy Hart

Nancy Hart was a favorite daughter of Georgia whose many patriotic exploits have become the stuff of legend.

Unfortunately, like many frontier women, her life was poorly documented and the specifics are hard to confirm.

THEREFORE, the stories that follow are based largely on folklore and several may not have happened at all. However, seeing as Hart has an entire county in Georgia named in her honor, the tales of this Founder need to be told.

Nancy Hart

Ann Morgan received the nickname Nancy as a little girl.

She grew up to be a strong woman who by all accounts was homely and generally held the characteristics associated with men of her era, notably developing great skills in hunting and trapping.

Some men, then as now, were more attracted to character than appearance and Ann wed Benjamin Hart before moving from the North Carolina frontier to that of Georgia.

Spy

Now going by the name Nancy Hart, she and her family became ardent Patriots when the Revolutionary War broke out.

Nancy, it is said, pretended to be dimwitted and walked into British camps on several occasions. Truthfully, she was very smart, and her entries into enemy territory were designed to retrieve information for the Patriots.

Hart, therefore, is one of the few female spies to work for the Americans.

Right in the Face

Apparently, Loyalist Militia visited the Hart residence on several occasions.

During one of these visits, legend has it, Nancy threw boiling soap in the face of her ‘guest.’ While the man was blinded by the maneuver, Hart and her daughter tied the man up.

You Want My Turkey, Huh?

The most famous of Nancy Hart’s exploits came when six British soldiers came to her house and demanded she cook them one of her turkeys.

She did this...and got them drunk.

The men had laid there weapons on the table, so Hart took the guns.

When the soldiers attempted to take the weapons back, Nancy killed one, wounded another, and held the rest hostage until her husband and neighbors arrived.

The rest of the soldiers were hung.

Retirement

Of all the stories of Nancy Hart, this last one seems to have been confirmed in 1912 when several bodies were found buried in a line with broken necks not far from their home.

Nancy survived for several more decades, eventually moving close to her son in Kentucky for her final years.

She passed away in 1830, estimated to have lived to about 90 years of age.

To learn about other women who didn’t play by the rules during the American Founding, check out these articles:

Patience Wright Waxes the King

Deborah Sampson Drags Herself to War

Mercy Otis Warren Scribbles Her Way Into History

Nancy Hart has several books about her life.

‘An American Heroine’ is well researched and annotated to help readers with certain difficult language from the time period.

If you’d like a copy you can get one through the Amazon affiliate link below (you’ll support this site, but don’t worry, Amazon pays me while your price stays the same).