Participation of African Americans In The Revolutionary War
Prince Whipple
Prince Whipple
The story of Prince Whipple, long identified as the young Black soldier seated in front of of Washington Crossing the Delaware, is a neglected and little understood. Prince Whipple did serve in the American Revolution, and fought at Saratoga in 1777, and at the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778. Although Whipple has been identified by some as the African American figure in the familiar painting of Washington crossing the Delaware River, it is doubtful he was present on Christmas Eve, 1776.
In December of 1776 however, Whipple was with his master, William Whipple in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1776, he was a member of the Continental Congress when it moved to Baltimore to escape the British forces making their way through New Jersey. Prince Whipple was born in what is now Ghana (on the West Coast of the African Continent) to affluent parents sometime around 1750. His parents wanted to provide him with an excellent education and made plans to send him to a British Colony for such. He and his cousin were sent to America to be educated.
However, an unscrupulous ship Captain instead took them to Boston and sold them into slavery to a wealthy sea captain General William Whipple, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Captured Africans to be sold into slavery were first shipped to the Caribbean where they either remained to work the sugar plantations, or were carried onto America to be auctioned either as household servants or onto farms or larger plantations. Captain William Whipple was active in the slave trade.
Prince Whiple (it was customary for slaves to take the surname of their master) was indeed a learned man, competent in communications both written and oral. He grew into manhood enslaved, a body servant to one of the colony’s most influential leaders. Because of his expertise and refinement, Whipple also served as major-domo at the most elegant social events in the city. Well able to express complex ideas and principals. Whipple accompanied the general on tours and was entrusted with delivering a large sum of cash which he defended valiantly.
As the relationship between England and her colonies worsened, particularly in Sons of Liberty hotbed New England, it was not long before Captain Whipple obtained a leading role in the local militia and assemblies of rebellion. The year 1775 was important for William. He was appointed Colonel of the 1st New Hampshire State Militia Regiment. Colonel Whipple was also chosen to represent Portsmouth in the New Hampshire Provincial Congress. After the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19th, and the advent of open hostilities with England, a Second Continental Congress was called. Colonel Whipple was selected as one of the three delegates to be sent to Philadelphia from New Hampshire.
At Philadelphia, William Whipple would sign his name, along with fifty-four other delegates, to the Declaration of Independence. Like so many Founding Fathers, he had no trouble affixing his signature to a document that proclaimed all men are created equal, while owning slaves. He not only owned a slave, but benefited financially from the slave trade.
General William Whipple, reportedly asked his slave to join the war. At the outbreak of the American Revolution in Massachusetts in 1775, hundreds of Blacks and Native American men served in local militias and state forces. This pattern was the same in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Whipple promised to fight for the country but only with the promise of freedom. Colonel William and Prince were called up on September 22, 1777 and ordered to join the Northern Army in Saratoga, New York. As such, they showed up just before the surrender of the British Army on October 17, 1777.
As at Saratoga, Brigadier General Whipple’s brigade would not see any action at the Battle of Rhode Island. They were part of the initial siege of British defenses at Newport, RI that began on August 9th. In May of 1778, Brigadier General Whipple would be given the command of two New Hampshire State Militia regiments and one company of light horse. By early August, Whipple, with Prince at his side, arrived at the American camp. The American rear-guard that felt the blunt of the British attack were Continental troops. They held the British off, allowing the army to ferry off Aquidneck Island.
Particularly mention must go to the 1st Rhode Island Continental Black Regiment, who threw back three assaults by 1,500 Hessian troops. During the British assault, there was a prolonged cannon dual. It is recorded that one of the British shot landed just outside General Whipple’s Headquarters. The ball went through a horse tied up outside the building and wounded one man. The only close call both General William and Prince would experience in the war. After the Battle of Rhode Island, Prince and William Whipple returned to Portsmouth. Prince would remain a slave and in the service of William at his home.
The following year, on November 12th, 1779, Prince Whipple was one of 20 petitioners signed a petition for their freedom through the New Hampshire Assembly. The petition was tabled without legislative action. It is believed that Prince, having received an early education in reading and writing, penned either part of or all of the petition. William Whipple wasn’t about to concede his legendary promise of freedom. The day of Prince’s wedding, William proclaimed that Prince would be granted the rights of a freeman, while still remaining his slave. Hypocrite! Whipple was granted freedom in 1781 long after the war ended, though it wasn’t made official until 1784.
Several misconceptions arise from Emanuel Leutze’s famous “Washington Crossing the Delaware” painting, created in 1851. Leutze’s painting features a soldier of color at Washington’s knee. While some say this is a man named Prince Whipple, there’s no documentation proving he was at the crossing or that he wasn’t.
Titus Cornelius
Titus Cornelius
Cornelius Titus, also known as Titus or Titus Cornelius, was born into slavery around 1753 near Colt’s Neck, Monmouth County in the province of New Jersey. Like most enslaved Africans during this time his true date of birth is unknown. By 1704 the first slave laws were enacted restricting the movement and lives of both free and enslaved Africans. By the onset of the American Revolution there were approximately 8,200 enslaved Africans living in the New Jersey colony. It was second only to New York among the northern American colonies.
Titus was owned by a Quaker named John Corlies. Corlies was an unusual Quaker in that he seemed quite comfortable with the institution of slavery contrary to most of his Quaker brethren. Most Quakers in the New Jersey colony at that time were moving toward opposing slavery on both moral and religious grounds. Common practice for Quakers was to provide their slaves with some education as well as emancipation at the age of 21. Corlies was not that type of Quaker, and refused to free his slaves. In fact he was known in the community as a hard taskmaster and quick to use the whip.
Corlies also kept his slaves past the age of 21, and he was one of the last slaveholders in the region. In late 1775, a delegation from the Shrewsbury Meeting of the Society of Friends approached Corlies about his treatment of his slaves. Life changed drastically for Titus in November of 1775, when Titus was 22 years old, when John Murray, the 4th Earl of Dunmore and Royal Governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation. This decree offered any indentured servant or enslaved African that escaped and joined the British their freedom.
The proclamation and the disruption of the war contributed to an estimated nearly 100,000 slaves escaping during the Revolution, some to join the British. Planters considered Dunmore’s offer a “diabolical scheme“; it contributed to their support for the Patriot cause. Titus Cornelius coincidentally escaped from Corlies’ property the day after Dunmore’s proclamation and he joined British forces. Through sheer force of will Titus made his successful escape to Virginia. There he joined the newly formed Ethiopian Regiment, established by the Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore. These men were the first all-Black regiment to serve the British Crown.
These newly freed Africans were proud to be fighting for freedom and considered themselves fighting for the freedom of all enslaved Africans in North America. Trained to bear arms against all, which would include killing whites, was a concept that was unfathomable at the time. The very thought that slaves could and would kill Whites enraged and terrified colonial Patriots. In their first engagement many of the Ethiopian Regiment lost their lives at the battle of Great Bridge in Virginia.
Titus, or now as he had become known by “Tye” had thus far survived escape from a cruel master and from several battles for which he was ill-prepared, as well as the spate of diseases that decimated the regiment. While Tye stood out as a soldier from the start, the British didn’t station him at pitched battles. They saw more value in using his knowledge of the coveted New Jersey territory, which sat between British-occupied New York and the Patriot’s center of government in Philadelphia. The British were right. Tye excelled at raid warfare there. His familiarity with the area gave him an advantage in attacks on Patriots’ lands.
And his daring, skillful execution kept his Black Brigade soldiers largely unscathed as they plundered homes, took supplies, freed slaves and sometimes even assassinated Patriot slaveholders renowned for their cruelty. So admired was Tye that the British bestowed upon him the honorary title of Colonel. His leadership skills and bravery propelled him to be placed in charge of a command of a large regiment of fighting men. Although the regiment was called the “Black Brigade” the make-up of men consisted of escaped slaves, Native Americans and indentured Whites.
Due to their unjust treatment as slaves, the Black Brigade often aimed their raids at former masters and their friends. Because the members of the Black Brigade knew the homes of Patriots from their time as slaves, the Patriots feared the Black Brigade more than the regular British army. Joined by a White Loyalist unit, the Queen’s Rangers, and other White Loyalist guerrilla bands, they freed numerous slaves and helped to protect British-occupied New York City.
By 1780, Colonel Tye had become an important military force. Within one week in June, he led three against Patriot supporters into Monmouth County. Tye’s tactics were so effective that most of the raids were successfully completed without the loss of any of his men.
1) June 9, Tye and his men murdered Joseph Murray, in retaliation for Murray’s vigilante executions of Black Loyalists.
2) June 12, while the British attacked Washington’s dwindling troops, Tye and his band launched a daring attack on the home of Barnes Smock. They captured the militia leader and twelve of his men, destroying their cannon, depriving Washington of needed reinforcements, and striking fear into the hearts of local patriots.
3) On 22 June, Tye’s brigade captured James Mott, the second major in the Monmouth’s militia regiment, and James Johnson, a captain in the Hunterdon militia, plus six other militia men.
On September 1, 1780, Tye led the Black Brigade and the Queen’s Rangers to Colt’s Neck, New Jersey in another attack on the prominent local county rebel leader, Captain Josiah Huddy. Known for his swift execution of Loyalists, Huddy was an important target for Tye’s forces. Although the raid was successful, Tye was shot in the wrist with a musket ball during the battle. The wound became infected and Tye died two days later on September 3. Even after his death, Tye’s impact on the war was recognized by both the British and the Americans.
Colonel Stephen Blucke, commanded the Black Loyalist unit, the Black Company of Pioneers, after Tye’s death. Titus Cornelius was born into slavery, yet he gained his freedom, his honor, and the respect of his fellow men. Freedom has never been free for the downtrodden. It has been speculated that if Colonel Tye and his “Black Brigade” had fought on the side of the future Americans, perhaps the war would have ended sooner.
Salem Poor
Salem Poor is but one of some three dozen Blacks who fought at Bunker Hill. Poor was born into slavery in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1747 or 1748, and worked on the farm of John and Rebecca Poor and their son John Poor Jr. However at the age of 22 he purchased his freedom for 27 pounds, the equivalent of the one year’s salary at that time. Most slaves were not paid for their labor, and therefore unable to save money to pay for their freedom. It was against the law to teach them to read, write and learn math, so it was difficult for a slave to gain their freedom.
Slaves were often contracted out to others. However, the wages went to the owner, not the slave. The slave had no standing under the law as they were considered property and not human beings. One likely explanation is that John and Rebecca paid him wages or he was able to work paid labor on top of his work on the farm. Poor had to have much hope, vision, and fortune on his side to accomplish such a feat as being able to work and purchase his freedom. By the early 1770s, the Revolutionary War was brewing and in 1774, Massachusetts began recruiting and establishing militia units frequently referred to as “minutemen”.
In 1775, Poor enlisted in the Army with Captain James Frye’s regiment of Massachusetts Minutemen. Like other militia minutemen, was trained to respond at a minute’s notice any British aggression. He became a soldier in 1775, and rose to fame as a war hero during the American Revolutionary War. Following the outbreak of war at Lexington and Concord, he joined the Patriot forces in Boston, under Captain Benjamin Ames in Colonel James Frye’s regiment. His regiment with 2 others totaled 850 soldiers. They marched from Cambridge to Charlestown, Massachusetts where the officers decided to fortify Breed’s Hill (aka Bunker Hill) using pick axes and shovels.
At Breed’s Hill, the regiments built a fort on the top of the hill using pick axes and shovels. The men worked quickly and quietly to make sure the British army occupying Boston did not know they were there. As many as 5000 soldiers, both free and enslaved African Americans fought for the Patriots. During the battle, Poor’s unit also included other African American minute men: Titus Coburn, Peter Salem, and Seymour Burr, who each showed their own heroism in this and other battles. Manpower was a further problem on Breed’s Hill. The defenses were thin toward the northern end of the colonial position and could have been easily exploited by the British. The British had an army thrice the size as the Americans. They would assault Breed’s Hill on June 17, 1775.
During that day of June 17, Poor’s unit arrived as a secondary force to work on fortifications. But things did not happen as planned. They ended up covering the retreating units that had constructed the redoubt on Breed’s Hill. The Americans would push the British back in two of the assaults but would run out of ammunition and would retreat during the third assault. Poor’s unit received heavy fire; the British Regular Army killed five men near him on the spot and left another six seriously wounded. Poor slowed his own retreat in order to assist the wounded.
Legend has it that as Poor retreated, he slowed and fired one last shot at the British, mortally wounding British Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie. However, Abercrombie may have been killed due to friendly fire. Still, Poor‘s actions during the battle drew the notice of his regimental commanders. Great Britian won that battle, but at a great loss; they had suffered 1,054 casualties (226 dead and 828 wounded), and a disproportionate number of these were officers. The casualty count was the highest suffered by the British in any single encounter during the entire war. On July 10, 1775, Major General George Washington ended the recruitment of free and enslaved Black men.
Also on the 12th of November, 1775, General George Washington ordered Black men not to serve in the Continental Army again. Despite the ban on recruitment, those who had already been serving for some time were allowed to stay until this point. Because of this, Lord Dunmore, Virginia’s governor, freed all slaves who wished to serve with the British. Because of this and other reasons, at the end of 1775 Washington reversed his order. Poor reenlisted and served at least through 1776. He served under Colonel Edward Wigglesworth’s 13th Massachusetts Regiment from mid-1777, meaning he fought in the Battle of White Plains in New York. He, served during the Saratoga Campaign, encamped for the winter at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, and fought in the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey. He also served at Fort George.
Poor’s military service ended in 1780, when he returned home to Andover, Massachusetts. His contributions so impressed fellow soldiers, that after the war ended, 14 of them formally recognized his excellent battle skills with a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts. In it, they called him out as a “brave and gallant soldier,” saying he “behaved like an experienced officer.” In his personal life, he married four times, three to free women of color. Despite Poor’s dedicated and recognized heroism in life, his later years were plagued with troubles. By 1793, he was a resident of the Boston Almshouse (a poorhouse).
Peter Salem
Peter Salem
Peter Salem was born to an enslaved woman in Framingham, Massachusetts on October 1, 1750. He was owned initially by Captain Jeremiah Belknap. Later, he was sold to Lawson Buckminster who became a Major in the Continental Army. Because of fear of slave insurrections, both north and south, Black Colonists were barred from legally serving in militias since 1656. The Committee of Safety, fearing hostilities and dealing with a low turnout rate for white recruits, allowed the recruitment of free Blacks. Major Buckminster promised Salem his freedom if he enlisted, which he did in 1775.
After being freed from slavery, Peter Salem joined Captain Simon Edgell’s militia company entering the fight on the Battle Road near Brooks Hill in Lincoln, Massachusetts. He became one of the Minutemen heroes of the American Revolutionary War. Salem took part in the war’s first battles at Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775. He is on the roll of Captain Simon Edgell’s militia company from Framingham. A week later, he enlisted in Colonel Nixon’s Fifth Massachusetts Regiment and was assigned to Captain Thomas Drury’s company. This company included several other Black colonists minute men: Titus Coburn, Salem Poor, and Seymour Burr, all of whom fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.
Though Salem fully participated in the Battle of Lexington and Concord Bridge, it was in the Battle of Bunker Hill (actually the Battle of Breed’s Hill) that he gained notoriety. At dawn on June 17, 1775, British General William Howe ordered fire on the Americans three times and drove them northward across Bunker Hill. Under Col. Nixon’s leadership, Peter Salem found himself at the heart of the battle. The Minutemen were outnumbered and in danger of being overrun. In this battle the Americans had 400 dead and wounded men; the British lost more than 1,000. He fired the shot that killed British Royal Marine Major John Pitcairn.
At that time, rebelling New Englanders saw Pitcairn as a violent enemy and found it particularly satisfying that the Major could have been killed by a Black man. Salem received a commendation from the Massachusetts General Court for his bravery at Bunker Hill. Soon afterward, soldiers of the New England Army raised money to reward Salem for his bravery. The hero was presented to Gen. George Washington as the man who killed Pitcairn. Just after the Battle of Bunker Hill, General George Washington arrived in Cambridge to take command of the emerging Continental Army.
Major General George Washington remained a southern planter with deep roots of prejudice and fear of slave insurrections. On November 12th 1775, as supreme commander, he issued an order declaring that enslaved people could no longer be recruited for the militia. When word reached Washington that on November 7th 1775, Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, had freed all slaves of patriots willing to serve the British, he canceled his order. A new edict was issued on the 30th of December that permitted free Black colonists.
After the Continental Congress approved the order on the 16th of January, 1776. Peter Salem was able to enlist in the 6th Massachusetts Regiment because he was emancipated. Salem served in Colonel John Nixon’s 6th Massachusetts Regiment from April 24, 1775 to December 31, 1779. In January 1777, Salem enlisted in the Continental Army for a three-year term. Serving in the 6th Massachusetts regiment, he fought in the Battles of Saratoga, at Valley Forge, in the Battle of Monmouth, and stormed the fortress at Stony Point.
Salem was discharged from the army on March 1st, 1780, but remained in the Framingham Militia until the end of the war. Salem served in the Continental Army for almost five years, until the end of the war from 1775 – 1780. After his discharge, Peter Salem returned to Massachusetts, settling in Salem. He tried his hand as a vegetable gardener but was unsuccessful and resorted to earning a meager living by weaving and repairing baskets and cane bottom chairs. He did not draw any benefit from his fame as the infantryman who might have killed Major Pitcairn. At war’s end Peter Salem was a free man.
James Armistead
James Armistead
James Armistead was probably born in 1748 in New Kent County, the property of William Armistead. He lived most of his life on a plantation. When the War for Independence began, William Armistead was appointed one of the managers of Virginia’s military supplies. This kept him and James in Williamsburg until they moved to Richmond in 1780. During the American Revolution, however, James received permission from his master, William Armistead, to enlist in the Marquis de Lafayette’s French Allied units.
During the Revolution, James Armistead’s life changed drastically—from an enslaved person in Virginia to a double agent passing intel, and misinformation, between the British Cornwallis and the French Marquis de Lafayette’s. When James Armistead Lafayette joined the Patriots’ efforts, they assigned him to infiltrate the enemy. So he pretended to be a runaway slave wanting to serve the crown, and was welcomed by the British with open arms. At first they assigned him menial support tasks, but he soon became a more strategic resource due to his vast knowledge of the local terrain.
Armistead’s role got more interesting when the British directed him to spy on the Patriots. Since his loyalty remained with the colonists, he claimed to be bringing the British intel about the Continental Army. As a double agent, he relayed critical information to Lafayette and misleading intel to the enemy. Oblivious to his true intentions, the British assigned Armistead to work under the notorious turncoat, Benedict Arnold. By helping Arnold maneuver his troops through Virginia, Armistead gained significant insight into the Redcoats’ movements.
Armistead informed Lafayette and Washington about approaching British reinforcements, which allowed the generals to devise a blockade impeding enemy advancements. Armistead fed Cornwallis, whose forces outnumbered la Fayette’s small army, mostly false information about American troop strength and movement. James’ efforts gave the American and French armies and the French navy enough time to reach the Chesapeake. Using the intelligence brought to them by James, Washington and Lafayette were able to prevent 10,000 British reinforcements from linking up with the main British army in Virginia, led by Lord Charles Cornwallis.
Because of Armistead’s efforts, they got the insight they needed to successfully execute the decisive Siege of Yorktown, which effectively ended the war, when Lord Cornwallis surrendered on October 17, 1781. With the end of the fighting came the end of James’ service to la Fayette, so he returned to the life of a slave owned by Armistead. Unfortunately for James, because he was a spy and not an enlisted soldier, the 1782 law passed by the Virginia legislature to provide for the freedom of slaves who had served in the war did not apply to him.
Years later, after a testimonial from the French general helped secure Armistead’s freedom, the former slave changed his surname to Lafayette. The Marquis de Lafayette’s gave an official certificate commending James Armistead Lafayette’s service on behalf of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Lafayette wrote a letter to Congress on his behalf. Armistead received his manumission in 1787. After winning his freedom, James Lafayette moved south of New Kent County. He married and raised a large family, although he did not receive the military pension owed to him by Congress until 1819, 27 years after the war had ended.
In 1824, nearly 50 years after the start of the War of Independence, President James Monroe invited the aged Marquis de Lafayette on a tour of the United States. The marquis, who had not been in America for decades, happily accepted, visiting each of the 24 states where he was cheered by ecstatic crowds of Americans who hoped to catch a glimpse of one of the Revolution’s last surviving heroes. When the marquis was visiting Yorktown, Virginia, he heard someone call out his name; looking into the crowd, the marquis saw the familiar face of James Lafayette, whom he recognized immediately. The Marquis de Lafayette then leaped off his horse, rushed into the crowd, and embraced the former spy to the applause of the gathered throngs of Virginians.
1st Rhode Island Regiment
1st Rhode Island Regiment
The 1st Rhode Island Regiment, widely regarded as the first Black battalion in U.S. military history, originated, in part, from General Washington’s desperation. In late 1777 during the American Revolution, the Continental Army, led by General Washington, faced severe troop shortages in its war with the British. In late 1777 during the American Revolution, the Continental Army, led by General Washington, faced severe troop shortages in its war with the British. There weren’t enough men to be persuaded to enlist in the depleting army, so congress resorted to the draft. They mandated that each state must fill a quota of militias, based on its population.
Rhode Island, the smallest state with a population under 60,000 on the eve of the Revolution, needed to fill two battalions. When the state couldn’t recruit enough White men, its leaders appealed to Washington to allow both free and enslaved Black men to enlist. As both a slave owner and commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from its formation in 1775, Washington had long opposed the use of Black soldiers, fearing that armed Black men would incite a rebellion among enslaved people and alienate Southern slaveholders.
For the Continental Army, the use of Black soldiers had proved one of the war’s most controversial issues. Lord Dunmore, Britain’s colonial governor of Virginia, infuriated that state’s slave holding class when in 1775 he declared martial law and promised freedom to any enslaved person who abandoned his owner and joined the British forces.
The promise of freedom inspired an estimated 20,000 enslaved men to flee and enlist with British forces. The Slave Enlistment Act of 1778 stipulated that any enslaved person accepted to the 1st Rhode Island Regiment be “immediately discharged from the service of his master or mistress, and be absolutely free.” It also mandated financial compensation for owners who lost their enslaved workers to the new regiment—up to $400 each in colonial dollars.
Over time, the harsh realities of a failing war effort called for America’s founding fathers to make some pragmatic decisions to preserve their nation’s future. The unit went through several reorganizations and name changes, like most regiments of the Continental Army. The First Rhode Island Regiment consisted of 125 Black patriots – both slave and free – commanded by Colonel Christopher Greene. It became known as the “Black Regiment” because it was composed mostly of Black enlistees.
Led by all-White officers, the Black regiment saw its first combat experience at the Battle of Rhode Island on August 29, 1778. On August 29, 1778, the regiment was on assignment at Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay near Newport, where they had been tasked with guarding a defensive position anchoring the Continental Army’s right wing. Over the course of the battle, the regiment drove back three Hessian (German) regiments of the British army. “It was in driving back these furious attacks that our Black regiment distinguished itself with deeds of great valor,” remembered a regiment member.
The 1st Rhode Island’s courageous performance at the Battle of Rhode Island led to more Blacks being enlisted to the Continental Army. The Slave Enlistment Act of 1778 was repealed by the Rhode Island legislature less than half a year later. This meant that most subsequent volunteers to the regiment came from the ranks of White or freed Black men.
However, the 1st Rhode Island Regiment composed of Blacks, Native Americans, and White soldiers, served together from 1778 through the end of the war in 1783. It is regarded by some as the first Black military unit, because most of the enlistees were non-white. That regiment, created during the infamous winter at Valley Forge, became noted for its bravery and courage, receiving its first baptism by fire during the Battle of Newport in 1778. The unit also, distinguished itself in battles from the Siege of Boston to the Battle of Rhode Island and beyond to Yorktown.
Colonel Stephen Blucke led an all-Black Regiment that fought for the British during the American Revolution. The historical record shows him taking over the command of the Black Brigade after the death of Cornelius Titus, also known as Colonel Tye in 1780, and successfully leading it through the end of the war. After the war, he settled in Birchtown, Nova Scotia in 1783 and became a leader in the Black Loyalist community.
The details surrounding the rest of his life are decidedly sparse, other than that he was born in the British island of Barbados to a White father and a Black mother sometime around 1752. At some point, exact year unknown, he arrived in Britain’s American Colonies, where he married a woman named Margaret, and the couple eventually adopted a daughter, Isabel.
When the Revolutionary War erupted, Blucke was swayed by British promises to free all negroes who voluntarily joined them, and became a Black Loyalist. He joined the Black Brigade in the late 1770s, and distinguished himself while serving in its ranks. In 1782, he took command of the unit after the death of its leader, Colonel Tye, from wounds sustained in a failed attempt to capture bloodthirsty militia leader Joshua Huddy.
Blucke successfully led the Black Brigade for the remainder of the war, even after the British surrender at Yorktown. On March 24th, 1782, Blucke and his men completed Tye’s final (and failed) mission, and took part in the capture of Joshua Huddy. The Loyalists finally avenged themselves on Huddy by hanging him in the Navesink Highlands in Monmouth County, NJ, on April 12th, 1782.
After the war, Blucke joined the exodus of Loyalists, and ended up in Nova Scotia. There, in 1784, the governor commissioned him a lieutenant colonel in the province’s black militia. Blucke was also tasked with scouting for land in which to settle fellow Black Loyalists, and decided on Birchtown. There, he built himself a comfortable and spacious home, and took up a career as a schoolmaster. Then, one night, he simply disappeared. It was speculated at the time that he must have been killed by wild animals, as torn clothes resembling his were found in the town’s outskirts.
He wasn't a Revolutionary War participant, but he became a martyr as
he was the first to die in America's rebellion against the British.
Crispus Attucks, was the first man to die in the struggle for American Independence during the historic Boston Massacre in March of 1770. Attucks was born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Attucks’s life prior to the day of his death is still shrouded in mystery. Although nothing is known definitively about his ancestry, Attucks father was said to be an African and his mother a Nantucket Indian. It is not clear whether Attucks was considered a free Black man, or, was a runaway slave himself. Attucks became a mariner—one of the few occupations accessible to a non-White person. When he was not at sea on trading ships or whaling vessels, he found work as a rope-maker.
As a seaman, he was constantly aware of the increased danger of impressment into the British navy. There was also a lot of competition from British troops for dock workers, as they often took part-time work for extra wages. As British control over the colonies tightened, tensions escalated between the colonists and British soldiers. Attucks was one of those directly affected by the worsening situation. On March 5, 1770, tensions reached its peak. After an altercation between colonists and British soldier Private Hugh White, more than 50 people surrounded Private White, led by Crispus Attucks.
They taunted the private. As more soldiers arrived to back him up, including the captain, they began loading their muskets and pointing them at a crowd that was now between 200 and 300 colonists. The crowd began hurling snowballs, ice balls, and insults at the men. Attucks and his followers charged toward the British soldiers. Several British soldiers were cornered, gunshots rang out. When the mob finally dispersed, five Bostonains were left dead. Attucks took two ricocheted bullets in the chest and was believed to be the first to die. Death instantly transformed Attucks from an anonymous sailor into a martyr for a burgeoning revolutionary cause.
In the following days, the people of Boston held a funeral procession for the victims of the massacre. Attucks became an icon of the anti-slavery movement in the mid-19th century. Supporters of the abolition movement lauded him for playing a heroic role in the history of the United States. While Attucks and the other dead were hailed as heroes in Boston, future president John Adams thought otherwise. Adams blamed Attucks for trying to be the “hero of the night” and by helping to fan the flames of the riot with his “mad behavior.” Adams defended the British soldiers in the ensuing trial and most were acquitted of wrongdoing, having acted in self-defense.