A Portrait of
Sybil Ludington
by Anita

Sybil was born in 1761. When she grew up she wanted to do something brave for America. Her mother said, "To be a lady you have chores to do. When I was sixteen you were one year old and I had to take care of you and now its time for you to act like a woman." While Sybil was at home there was a war going on between the English and the American colonists. Sybil's father was the leader of a group of colonial soldiers. One night on April 26, 1777, a messenger yelled, "Danbury's burning!" Sybil's father said, "Someone must go to the villages and farms to tell my men we have to march and I know someone who can do the job." He led the messenger to his house. He told Archie (his son) to put a saddle on Star (their horse.) Sybil was the only person who could handle Star and she knew where the men lived. Her father told her the British burned Danbury and someone had to tell the men to meet him at his house. Sybil did what she was supposed to do. She got back at midnight. She went to bed and fell asleep. When Sybil got older she told her children and grandchildren about the night when she did an important thing. She died in 1839, but nobody forgot the girl who rode for independence.

Columbus  Squanto  Franklin  Banneker  Washington  Revere  Jefferson 
Wheatley  Ludington  Chapman  Crocket  Braille  Lincoln  Douglass  
Tubman  Rockefeller  Edison  Burnett  Wilder  Morgan  Wright  Keller
  Picasso  Thorpe  Earhart  Parks  Owens  Kennedy  King  Marino  Jordan 

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