John Stark was an American hero.

He looked like this:

But he almost didn't live long enough to become a hero.

He was on a hunting trip with his brother and a friend.

A group of Native American warriors ambushed them.

John Stark yelled to tell his brother to run.

His brother escaped but his friend was killed, and John Stark was taken captive.

And these Indians were not kind to prisoners.

They made him run a gauntlet.

A gang of warriors stood in line with sticks and they told him to walk forward.

They were going to beat him to death. 

But John Stark charged the closest warrior, stole his stick, and started attacking.

The Indian chief was so impressed with his courage that he stopped the beating and adopted John Stark into his tribe.

After a few months, he was able to return to his home in New Hampshire.

Then the Revolutionary War broke out.

He was a patriot and agreed to lead a regiment of militia men.

He first made a name for himself at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

A small group of soldiers held the hill.

They knew they would be overrun.

So they sent out a request for reinforcements.

John Stark took his New Hampshire Minutemen and rushed to their aid.

He knew the British would try to flank the patriots holding the hill.

So he set a trap.

Using only straw, grass, and rocks, he constructed hiding places for his men.

When the British did try to flank the hill, John Stark's men popped out of their hiding spots in unison and took out so many British soldiers that they fled.

Later he would be instrumental to turning the tide of the war.

He used his untrained and undisciplined militia men brilliantly to harass and cut off supply routes for the northern British army.

This helped the Continental Army win at Saratoga.

And John Stark was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

After the war, he retired to his farm.

And in his old age, he wrote a letter to his former soldiers that read "Live free or die.  Death is not the worst of evils."

His words became the state motto of New Hampshire.

And a guy that gets adopted into an indigenous tribe after attacking its members, coins a phrase that becomes a state motto, and spends his life fighting for freedom is definitely a poster worthy person.

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