Nancy Morgan Hart

Background

Nancy Hart's early life is unknown. It is believed that she was born in 1735 in North Carolina, United States. Her parents were Thomas Morgan and Rebecca Morgan.

Career

During the Revolution, while her husband was away, Hart managed their farm, though she often snuck off to spy on the British. Dressed as a man, she would enter British camps pretending to be feeble-minded to gain information, which she handed off to the Patriots. Hart also engaged in the war and may have been present at the Battle of Kettle Creek on February 14, 1779.

The British frequently stopped at the Hart house, keeping an eye on the patriotic woman. In one instance, Hart’s daughter noticed Tory spying through a hole in the wall. Hart was making soap and threw a boiling ladle-full through the crack, scalding the spy. She and her daughter then tied him up and turned him over to the Patriots.

Hart’s most famous act involved five or six British soldiers, who killed her last turkey and demanded that she cook it for them. She devised a plan to get the soldiers drunk on her corn liquor, take their guns and hold them captive. Hart sent her daughter Sukey to get some water and to use a hidden conch shell to alert neighbors of the British presence. While the soldiers ate and drank, Hart began sneaking their guns out through a hole in the wall. Caught holding the third gun, she drew it and threatened to shoot. When a soldier rushed at her, she killed him and wounded another; the rest surrendered.

When her husband returned, Hart was holding the British soldiers at gunpoint. They, along with neighbors, hung the soldiers from a nearby tree. In 1912, six bodies were found buried near the Hart home, believed to have been those of the British soldiers, giving credence to the Hart legend.

Achievements

• Ann Morgan Hart played an important role in the American Revolution as a notorious female rebel and spy. Hart was a stalwart Patriot, who employed her own heroic means of supporting the American cause for Independence.

Politics

Nancy Hart was a stalwart supporter of the Whig cause.

Personality

Nancy's fearlessness prompted Cherokee neighbors to call her “Wahatche,” which meant “war woman.” This nickname would prove appropriate as the Revolution moved into the Georgia backcountry, and Hart became a staunch defender of the Patriot cause. Though Hart was illiterate, she was well-versed in the skills needed for surviving on the frontier. Hart’s husband fought in a band of the Georgia militia, and while he was away, Hart’s abilities as an herbalist, hunter, and markswoman proved imperative to protecting her family and community.

Physical Characteristics: Nancy Hart was six feet tall, she had red hair. Her built was mascular.

Connections

Nancy married Benjamin Hart, a prominent North Carolinian, and the couple had eight children. Sometime in the 1770s, the family moved to South Carolina and then into the Broad River Valley region of Georgia, where Nancy became accustomed to the frontier lifestyle.

Father:

Thomas Morgan

Mother:

Rebecca Morgan

Daughter:

Mary Albritton

Son:

John Benjamin Hart

Daughter:

Susanna Stark

Son:

James Hart

Daughter:

Sarah Hart

Son:

Thomas Morgan Hart

Son:

Lemuel Samuel Hart

Son:

Keziah Hart

Son:

Benjamin Hart

Son:

Mark Hart

References

• A Revolutionary Hart: Revolutionary War Heroine
  2016