The American Revolutionaries: A History in Their Own Words 1750-1800 / Milton Meltzer

A humble shoemaker hears the bells ringing at Lexington and responds to a call to battle. An aide to George Washington recounts his feelings as he crosses the Delaware. A young surgeon describes in his diary the horror of an army camp, where the spread of smallpox, frostbite, and starvation are deadlier than any sword. These are the voices of the American Revolutionaries.

Most of us know about the American Revolution only from secondhand accounts of the fighting or from documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. But listen closely and you can hear the voices-those that tell the truest stories -- of men, women, and children of all races who experienced the Revolution firsthand, who planted the seeds of liberty and passionately struggled to give birth to the United States of America that we know today.