I am out for Lent, I am not taking requests, but it's Women's History Month AND Fun Fact Friday, so Today You Learned about Dicey Langston!
Laodicea Langston was the daughter of Solomon Langston, Sr. in a family that settled in pretty much middle-of-nowhere South Carolina, what's now in the Upstate, closer to the mountains. Her brothers joined the Patriot militia during the American Revolutionary War, fighting against the British.
Now, in those days, a woman couldn't join the army (at least, not as herself--there are records of women joining under fake identities), but Dicey did her own part to help the war effort. And by that, I mean she was a Patriot spy during the war.
The story goes that her house was under observation by Tories, as they knew the family sympathies were against the crown, so when they heard information about troop movements that would lead to Patriot deaths--an attack on Little Eden, South Carolina--they couldn't do much about it. Except Dicey here decided (as a teenager, you should know) to sneak out of the house in the dead of night, nearly drowned crossing a river, so that she could get that information to her brothers. Little Eden was successfully evacuated before the British troops could raid the place.
Unfortunately, the British quickly surmised that the Langston family was the cause of the leak, even if they didn't know details. After Dicey had gotten home, British troops went to the house and started threatening Solmon Langston, demanding he and the rest of the family tell them information about the Patriots and their troop movements.
Dicey was having none of that, and got between her father and a loaded gun, telling off Loyalists.
Impressed by the pure gumption of the move, the Loyalists backed off.
At least, that's the story. For the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution (...this year??), South Carolina published this paper on Dicey Langston, her legacy, and comparing the records of her life/deeds. We do know she and her family existed, of course, but it digs down into how reliable the stories are and what historical information we can draw from them. Mind, SC has a vested interest in making this woman a hero for the state, given there's a bunch of stuff named after her, and she's a local hero, but still. An interesting paper.
Anyhow, I thought that was cool.
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