American Revolution Fiction

Voices of Liberty is a play for a single actor that was performed at Lincoln Center and Faneuil Hall in Boston and in tours across the country. A narrator introduces people from both sides of the American Revolution, and we learn what Liberty meant to them. Before the first shots were fired, Patrick Henry passionately defends the colonists' right to stand against British tyranny. Then we share the first battle of the war with a British soldier as he yearns for something more valuable in his life.

It was May of 1777, the beginning of the third year of the American War for Independence, on territory controlled by the British. In the back of a general store, Tim (age 17) had just found the body, when the proprietor burst in, accusing him of murder. Tim got away, went to a judge, and claimed the dead man was a rebel spy.

Tim Euston was willing to risk his life for his nation’s independence, and his opportunity came when a murder involved him with smugglers and spies. It was 1777, the third year of the War for Independence, and the town of Yonkers was at the south end of the Neutral Ground - a no man's land that separated the British on Manhattan Island from the Americans to the north. On a cold January night, Tim was thrown in jail - accused of robbery by the man who had hold of Tim’s 14-year-old sister. Two days later, a witness who could testify to Tim’s innocence was found dead.

He was the greatest spy of the American Revolution - so much so, that at times, it was hard to tell if he was working for the British or the Americans.

Deborah Sampson longs to break free. To be much more than a girl is allowed to be. Caught up in her country’s fight for independence, 18-year-old Deborah declares her own independence. She soon enlists in George Washington’s Continental Army, signing on as Robert Shurtliff. A young lady can’t battle the British—a man can! But being a soldier is hard, dangerous work. Can she keep her identity a secret? Can she prove herself in combat? Will she win her battle to choose her own path?

It may seem odd that Mark Twain delivered a 4th of July speech in London in 1907. Aside from poking fun at the American obsession with fireworks and drunken revelry, however, the brilliant Twain knew just how to tie the topic of American independence with his British audience. He recounts how the Revolutionary War was fought between Brits over a Declaration of Independence written by Brits before the United States officially formed as a nation.