Sarah Tarrant

Sarah Tarrant was a nurse of Salem, Massachusetts.

On Sunday, February 26, 1775, a battalion of British infantry, under Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Leslie, was sent to Salem to look for colonial weapons. Sarah Tarrant shouted at them from a window: "Go home and tell your master he sent you on a fool’s errand, and has broken the peace of our Sabbath. Do you think we were born in the woods, to be frightened of owls?" A soldier aimed his musket at her, and she dared him, “Fire, if you have the courage, but I doubt it.” No shots were fired, and the British, having found no weapons, left the town.

References

• Charles M[oses] Endicott, Account of Leslie's Retreat at the North Bridge in Salem, on Sunday, Feb'y 26, 1775 From the Proceedings of the Essex Institute (Salem: Wm. Ives and Geo. W. Pease Printers, Observer Office, 1856), 40