Famous American Revolutionaries

Huey P. Newton was an African-American civil and political rights activist. He is credited with co-founding The Black Panther Party (BPP), which went on to become one of black movement's most influential organizations of the late-1960s. The party, under Newton's leadership, founded more than 60 community support programs, including Free Breakfast for Children, which provided food to thousands of children.

Tecumseh was a Shawnee chief, diplomat, orator, and warrior. He is best known for promoting resistance to the United States' expansion onto Native American lands. He also promoted tribal unity and is credited with forming a Native American confederacy. He died trying to unite Native Americans and is considered an iconic folk hero in Canadian, Indigenous, and American history.

A significant figure of the American Revolution, Patrick Henry was the first governor of post-colonial Virginia. A skilled orator, he is remembered for his iconic words “Give me liberty or give me death!” He excelled as a lawyer and gained fame with his win in the Parson's Cause.

Irish statesman Éamon de Valera served as the 3rd President of Ireland from 1959 to 1973. An influential political leader in 20th-century Ireland, he played a key role in introducing the Constitution of Ireland. Prior to becoming the president, he served as Taoiseach on three different occasions. He was an austere, stern, and unbending figure.

Chief Joseph, a leader of the Nez Percé tribe of Native Americans, had initially agreed to the U.S. demand of them moving into a reservation in Idaho. However, fearing retaliation after his men killed a few whites, he attempted an escape to Canada, leading his people through an arduous trek.

As a child, Ethan Allen was fond of deciphering passages from the Bible. He grew up to co-establish Vermont and led the Green Mountain Boys during the American Revolutionary War. After failing to achieve Vermont’s separation from New York, he tried to unite Vermont with Canada.

One of the most significant leaders of the Oglala Lakota tribe of the Sioux group of Native Americans, Red Cloud is remembered for his fearless resistance to the American plan of accessing the goldfields in Montana. He attached workers along the Bozeman Trail and eventually forced the U.S. to withdraw.

Sold as a slave in childhood, Denmark Vesey adopted the surname of his master. He later purchased his freedom with the money he had won in a lottery. Earning a living as a carpenter, he simultaneously launched a slave rebellion and planned a coup but was eventually hanged to death.

Osceola led the Seminole tribe of Native Americans in their resistance against the U.S. attempt of moving them out of Florida and into the land west of Mississippi. He was eventually deceived by a fake truce attempt, captured, and transported to Fort Moultrie, where he passed away.

Born in New York, Baruch Goldstein had a medical degree and later moved to Israel as a doctor for the IDF. After firing at a crowd gathered in a Muslim prayer hall in Hebron, and thus killing 29 and injuring many, he was beaten to death by the survivors.

Born to a militia officer, Sybil Ludington later made history with her fearless resistance to the British during the American Revolutionary War. Most of her statues today find her perched on a horse, in a tribute to her night-long horseback ride to inform American soldiers of an impending British attack.

James Wilkinson served the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and also revealed Aaron Burr’s conspiracy to the U.S. government. While he worked against the Spanish people as part of the U.S. army, he was later revealed to be a Spanish spy, also known as Number Thirteen.

Part of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, Benjamin Lincoln had worked on his family farm before joining the army. After he and his 7,000 men surrendered in Charleston, he was freed in a prisoner exchange program and later became the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.

Tejano revolutionary Juan Seguín was a significant part of the revolution for the independence of Texas. The son of one of the drafters of the Mexican constitution, he grew up to become the mayor of San Antonio and also led the Republic of Texas as an elected senator.

One of the rare literate slaves of the colonial era, Gabriel Prosser was born into slavery at a tobacco plantation in Virginia. He led one of the first great slave revolutions of the U.S., aspiring to create an all-Black state, with himself as the king. He was eventually hanged.

Hannah Emerson Duston was a Puritan who was taken captive during King William's War by the Abenaki people. She is best remembered for killing and scalping 10 of the Native American family members with the help of two other captives. She later became a folk hero and was honored with a statue.

Mary Ludwig Hays, an American brave heart who is considered to have fought at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778 during the American War of Independence, is mostly identified as the woman behind the legend of Molly Pitcher. She reportedly took her husband's place working a gun after he was wounded and brought water to troops at the battle  

Legendary heroine of the American Revolutionary War, Nancy Hart was a skilled frontierswoman and herbalist from Georgia. Folklore has it that she was a 6-feet tall, muscular, red-headed woman, known as “war woman” to the locals. She is said to have fought and spied dressed as a man.

Irish-American sniper of the American Revolutionary War, Timothy Murphy was the man who inspired John Brick's novel The Rifleman. He is best remembered for his bravery at the Second Battle of Saratoga, in which he killed two British generals, aiming at them from a tree.

Physician, clergyman, and statesman Lyman Hall was one of the three delegates of the Congress from Georgia and one of four doctors to sign the United States Declaration of Independence. He also served as Governor of Georgia for a year and co-founded the University of Georgia before resuming his medical practice. Hall County in north central Georgia is named after him.

Betty Zane is remembered as the heroine of the second siege of Fort Henry that took place in September 1782, during the American Revolutionary War. She volunteered and thrived in carrying gunpowder from her brother’s home to the fort when the garrison was running low on ammunition, thus allowing them to continue to fight and hold the fort.

Abraham Whipple, an American Revolutionary War commander in the Continental Navy is counted among the brave hearts who fought for America’s freedom from British colonial rule. His achievements include attacking and burning the British customs schooner HMS Gaspee, and commanding privateer Game Cock that captured 23 French ships in six months. He was also a founding pioneer of Marietta, Ohio.

American Communist businessman John "Johnny" Gates is best-remembered as one of those who made attempt but failed in liberalising the Communist Party USA. He headed the Young Communist League. He was among the 11 communist leaders who were convicted in Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders in 1949 and sentenced to five years in prison.

Considered one of the founders of Liberia, a name he himself coined, Ralph Randolph Gurley was an American clergyman and abolitionist, who believed in separation of races. A major force behind American Colonization Society, he worked to relocate freeborn blacks and emancipated slaves to society’s colony in West Africa. He visited the area thrice and drafted plans for its governance.