Forgotten Americans: Footnote Figures Who Changed American History

by Willard Sterne Randall, Nancy Nahra

In 1779 a Philadelphia belle, Margaret Shippen, married a hero of the ongoing Revolution, General Benedict Arnold. Within months Peggy was sending coded messages to an old suitor from England, conveying Arnold's promise to defect. When their plot was discovered, the general fled. Peggy distracted George Washington with hysterics before following her husband. The British government eventually paid Peggy far more than Benedict Arnold ever received.A generation later, the Philadelphia neighborhood where Margaret Shippen had grown up was home to a businessman named James Forten. Due to his invention for rigging sails, Forten was rich enough to build large public halls and bankroll political causes. At the same time, this veteran of the Revolution was losing his political voice because he was black.Margaret Shippen Arnold and James Forten are just two of the fifteen fascinating but little-known lives told in Forgotten Americans. Weitten by an honored biographer and an award-winning poet, this entertaining book shines a light on overlooked figures. Traditional histories have often neglected these people, for many reasons. Some were on the losing side of a conflict, such as Tecumeseh, who spent years trying to unite Indian nations against white settlers. Others worked behind the scenes, like Annie Turner Wittenmyer, who took charge of supplying Union hospitals in the West during the Civil War. And some we disregard because their actions now seem unsavory, as with the once-celebrated ”Indian-slayer” Tom Quick.From these fascinating threads, Will Randall and Nancy Nahra weave a rich tapestry of American life. In it we witness the power of religious revival and the lure of mass entertainment. We watch philosophical differences split the nation. We see the shift in Native American's lives from Teedyuscung, a Delaware murdered despite his conversion to Christianity, to Louis Sockalexis, the baseball prodigy. These lively stories also reveal little-known facets of the Benjamin Franklin's disinherited son, Thomas Jefferson's secret politicking, and how Mary Todd Lincoln's confinement to a mental hospital became a public issue. From early settlements to the close of the nineteenth century, the brief biographies in Forgotten Americans engagingly fill out our knowledge of the nation's past.

Genres: History

277 pages, Paperback

First published January 21, 1968

About the author

Willard Sterne Randall is an American historian and author who specializes in biographies related to the American colonial period and the American Revolution. He teaches American history at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.

Reviews

[Zora · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who has more than a passing interest in American History, this is a must-read. A collection of short biographies, Forgotten Americans is a searchlight exposing not only our forgotten heroes, but the private aspects of the lives of historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson and the enigmatic Sitting Bull. Like most, I've been made familiar with the story of Benedict Arnold since childhood. But Margaret Arnold? Her story gave me the shivers. If you want to know not just who these people were as historical figures, but who they were as human beings, do yourself a tremendous favor and read this book.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up for a dollar at the bookstore in the city, and I thought it would be a really interesting book. It is a collection of short biographies about supposedly forgotten Americans. The problem with that is that it included plenty of people that were not forgotten. Tecumseh, Sitting Bull, Peggy Shippen, etc. I was highly disappointed in this book, and I would not recommend wasting time on it, even for a bathroom book. It was a major let down.

[Todd Kehoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Willard Sterne & Nancy Nahra are my two former professors at Champlain College in Vermont. They really got myself hooked on history.

They liked to tell the stories that were lesser known & did not make mainstream American history books. The victors shape history in some ways.

This is one of the few books I have left from school. Part of is that moving over the years doing seasonal summer/winter jobs for so long until a few years ago you keep what you still enjoy. This book is s collection of short American stories of people you may have never heard of. That is why I have kept this book for fifteen years.

I like revisiting it & relearning stories I learned in the classroom. At some point, I will donate to my local library to add to thier collection for others to enjoy.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ughh..."fascinating"!?! Hardly. I wouldn't waste my time reading this. I was bored from page one. If you are, however, interested in these "forgotten" heroes, then I'd suggest reading the table of contents and finding some other source to learn about these individuals. There has to be something out there that tells the tale of Arnold's wife and her role in his double cross in a more interesting way...and please read something about Thomas Jefferson that will tell you about his role with Marbury v. Madison or the Louisiana Purchase, his time in Paris, Sally Hemmings, etc...rather than a sojourn with Madison to Vermont.