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.

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.

English-born American political activist, philosopher, and revolutionary, Thomas Paine, is credited to have penned some of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution. His works inspired the common people of America and motivated them to fight for independence from British rule. He was ostracized for criticizing Christianity and died a lonely man.

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.

Francisco de Miranda was a Venezuelan revolutionary and military leader. He is considered a predecessor of Simón Bolívar, who liberated much of South America during the Spanish American wars of independence. Miranda is best remembered for his role in three major political movements of his time: the French Revolution, the American Revolutionary War, and the Spanish American Wars of Independence. 

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.

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.

Carl Schurz was a German-born American statesman, reformer, and journalist. After immigrating to the USA during the German revolutions of 1848–49, Schurz became an important member of the Republican Party. He also helped found the Liberal Republican Party which was organized to oppose the reelection of Ulysses S. Grant.  

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  

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.

Initially a muleteer at various mining companies, Pascual Orozco grew up to be a famous guerrilla leader from Chihuahua who made a significant contribution to the Mexican Revolution. Though he initially helped Francisco I. Madero depose Porfirio Díaz, he later sided with Victoriano Huerta in a coup against Madero.

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.

American politician and slaveholder Abraham Clark, a Revolutionary War figure who earned the reputation as "the poor man's councilor," signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a delegate for New Jersey to the Continental Congress. He later served as Member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey's At-large district in both the Second and Third United States Congress.

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.

A legend during the American Revolutionary War, Ann Bailey was a British-born American woman, who took up arms to become a frontier scout, messenger and spy. She became a heroine when during the seize of Fort Lee, she made a hundred miles single-person ride through host of besiegers and forestland to get powder supply and thus saved the Clendenin's Settlement.

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.