Nancy Hart depicted in a 1865 book, via Wikipedia.

Nancy Hart was born in 1735 as Ann Morgan Hart, but she is referred to as Nancy. While much of her early life is unknown, in the American Revolution, Nancy Hart was one of the most notorious spies and rebels. She was a patriot and fought endlessly for independence.

Nancy was also known as “war woman” or “Wasatch” which her Cherokee neighbors called her. Moving throughout the South, from South Carolina to Georgia, her survival skills proved crucial to the independence cause. Nancy was also a tall woman, rather imposing, standing at six feet tall. When the revolution moved to her home state of Georgia, Nancy used her markswoman and hunter skills to help protect her family and neighbors.

Her story takes off in the South, where she lived in her adult life. Given her height, Nancy was able to disguise herself as a man oftentimes to spy on the British. Nancy was fearless. The British troops could not outsmart her in their spying. She captured British soldiers in her home in Georgia after the soldiers demanded that she provide them with food. In her own clever way, Nancy and Sukey, her twelve-year-old daughter, captured their firearms, and when presented with a challenge, Nancy shot a British soldier to save her family. None of the six soldiers survived Nancy’s home. Following the war, Nancy moved from Georgia to Kentucky living into her nineties. 

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