NATHAN HALE

Nathan Hale was a school teacher who graduated from Yale university at 18. His brothers were already fighting the British in the American Revolutionary War and he was promoted to Captain upon graduation.

When the need of a spy was announced, Hale volunteered to go and was sent to spy on the British Army camped out in Long Island, New York. Somehow (accounts vary) he was betrayed and caught. Spies were executed by the British and so in 1776, the day after he was captured, he was sent to be hanged.

His remarkable composure during his last words speech roused many British commanders' respect and his letters to his family and friends were withheld so as not to generate support for the Revolutionary War.

“If I had ten thousand lives, I would lay them all down in defense of this injured, bleeding country” was among his last words spoken.

Nathan Hale faced his death with Valor and dignity, and encouraged others to consider their lives as a reasonable price for the struggle to win freedom from tyranny.