In Sam Patch: The Famous Jumper by Paul E. Johnson the life and exploits of America’s first daredevil are explored. Johnson is a U.S. History professor at the University of South Carolina who has written several novels that are used today in colleges all over America. This novel tells a story of a former mill boy who became a celebrity by performing dangerous stunts at a time when factories and the idea of modern celebrity were just beginning to take shape. Sam Patch inhabited and helped to shape an America in which things like factory work and modern celebrity were beginning to happen. Although Johnson states that the biographical trail is essentially dead he does concede to the basic facts of Sam Patch’s life. He was raised in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, a mill town made up predominately of woman and children. After his father’s abandonment, his mother was left no choice but to become head of the household and Sam Patch and his siblings were thrust into the workforce. Johnson describes Sam Patch as “not a good boy”, and at an early age, developed a taste for alcohol and stunts. Johnson characterizes Patch as “as a drunkard with a powerful suicidal drive…” Although his family …show more content…
For example, “In Sam Patch’s mind a man’s art was his identity-defining skill.” In Foner’s Give Me Liberty, he reinforces Johnsons representation of social issues by listing the benefits and the repercussions of industrialization in the 19th century. In Foner’s Voices of Freedom, Henry David Theroux contrasts how Johnson describes the issues of Industrialization because he felt that the industry development was making men,” tools of their tools” because factories were creating a type of wealth that America had never seen before which made everyone want to achieve