$2 SUGGESTED DONATION The onset of the American Early in the conflict, black WHAT’S IN A NAME? Patriots Revolution disrupted the New Englanders had to social and economic order fight for the right to fight. Throughout American history, people of Color in and offered unprecedented In the South, thousands of enslaved men and of African descent have demanded opportunities for freedom. women found freedom by fleeing to the British the right to define their racial identity Revolutionary Army, lured by promises of emancipation from through terms that reflect their When Caesar Robbins* marched to war in 1776, British military leaders. Although fewer in proud and complex history. African enslaved and free people of African descent number than their counterparts in the South, Americans across greater had been fighting in New England’s armies for enslaved men and women in New England used the terms “African,” “colored,” generations. Throughout the 18th century, black were just as capable of turning the war to their and “negro” to define themselves (1775-1790) Yankees served shoulder-to-shoulder with their advantage. In particular, men of African descent before emancipation, while African white neighbors in the colonial wars that forged in drew on the colony’s long Americans in the early 1900s used Britain’s North American empire. Patriots of martial tradition to enter the fray as soon as the the terms “black,” “colored,” “negro,” color such as Caesar Robbins, along with about Revolution began: Prince Estabrook, an enslaved 1,000 other Massachusetts men of color, seized man from Lexington, was wounded in the war’s and “Afro-American” – which later on these circumstances and waged their own first exchange of shots on April 19, 1775. became “African American” to identify battles for independence. themselves and their ancestors. In our Initially, New England’s white leaders readily brochures, the terms “people of color,” enlisted men of color in the armed forces. But “people of African descent,” “black,” pressure from southern leaders led General and “African American” are used to dismiss soldiers of interchangeably to reflect the identities African descent from the army gathered in claimed by over Cambridge at the end of 1775. Following strong time. protests from white officers and black soldiers in These and the terms “enslaved” (versus “slave”) and “enslaver” (versus “master” or “owner”) are used to reflect the humanity of the millions of black men, women, and children who claimed their personhood, in various ways large and small, despite the laws and systems that bound them. What were they fighting for?

BY JOHN HANNIGAN, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY p During the Revolution, black men served side by side with white soldiers in integrated units. This p In 1775, George Washington issued orders recreation of a soldier in the 6th Connecticut Regiment instructing army recruiters not to enlist people demonstrates the typical uniform and equipment of of color into the . But pressure New England soldiers. (Don Troiani, Bridgeman Images) from white officers and black soldiers alike forced him to reverse this order by the end of the year. (Massachusetts Archives) *NOTE: names in bold are associated with the Robbins House. © THE ROBBINS HOUSE, INC. New England, he relented and reopened military Military service was Fighting in the American At the war’s end, black soldiers returned to a service to free men of color. By the end of the not necessarily a path army was just one avenue state struggling to understand ’s place war’s first year, black soldiers had cemented their within its new republican government. Even place in a racially integrated Continental Army. to freedom. of escape offered by the though census takers recorded no slaves in Some black men were forced into the army as Revolution from a lifetime Massachusetts and New Hampshire during the The bar on enlisting enslaved men eventually substitutes for white enslavers eager to pocket of slavery. first federal listing in 1790, the vast majority of fell. Manpower shortages forced Washington to the bondsmen’s enlistment bounties and wages people of color still lived with white families as modify his stance. During the harsh Valley Forge for themselves. Other enslaved men purchased Beginning in 1773, Boston’s black community if nothing had changed. But some free people winter of 1777-78, the General authorized the freedom through military service, exchanging petitioned the Massachusetts legislature asking of color sought to realize independence, even if Rhode Island government to recruit a regiment of their pay for . Still other enslaved the government to end the slave trade, abolish that meant living on the margins of their towns, enslaved men, with a promise of freedom for all men acted on their own; absconding from their slavery, and provide support for enslaved men and as did Caesar Robbins at the edge of Concord’s who enlisted. By the time the First Rhode Island enslavers to join the army, they enacted their women in the state. Often employing the same Great Field. Nevertheless, these people were part Regiment disbanded in 1780, over two hundred own declarations of independence. Some of these republican rhetoric used by white Revolutionary of the vibrant African American community enslaved soldiers had served in its ranks. soldiers marked their new status with original leaders in their challenges to British tyranny, emerging in post-Revolutionary Massachusetts. surnames, as did Concord’s Brister Freeman. black petitioners argued that freedom was “the While the New England governments never natural right of all Men.” Although their pleas SOURCES & FURTHER READING explicitly authorized the enlistment of men in Whatever their path to war, patriots of color went nowhere, this nascent political movement bondage, recruiting officers proved reluctant to served in an army that – at least on paper – offered served as an important catalyst in the post-war Concord deeds, censuses, town and vital records, etc. turn away willing recruits, enslaved or free. As a measure of equality to all its recruits. The New struggle to end slavery. Emily Blanck, Tyrannicide: Forging an American a result, New England regiments mobilized a England regiments were fully integrated, with Law of Slavery in Revolutionary South Carolina and Massachusetts (Athens, GA: University of Georgia larger proportion of black soldiers than did other black soldiers serving side-by-side with whites. Elsewhere in Massachusetts, enslaved men and Press, 2014). states. By the time Caesar Robbins served his Men of color received the same bounties, wages, women seized on the Massachusetts Constitution Douglas R. Egerton, Death or Liberty: African final tour of duty in 1779, nearly six percent of and rewards as did all other soldiers. Black and of 1780 to press their case for freedom. This Americans in Revolutionary America (New York: Massachusetts soldiers serving in the army were white troops shared food, tents, and clothing as frame of government – ratified by the white male Oxford University Press, 2009). black. In total, more than 3,000 enslaved and free well as the privation and hardship of the harsh citizenry – affirmed the Revolutionary ideal that Sylvia R. Frey, Water from the Rock: Black Resistance New Englanders of color served in the American winters at Valley Forge and Morristown and the “all men are born free and equal.” Invoking this in a Revolutionary Age (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991). army by the war’s end. blood and terror of the battles at Saratoga and principle, bondspeople turned to the courts and Gary B. Nash, The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans Monmouth. sued for their freedom. Not all were successful in the Age of Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard but a few, notably and Elizabeth University Press, 2006). Freeman (known as “Mum Bett”), did manage to Cassandra Pybus, Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway obtain their freedom in the state’s courts. Slaves of the American Revolution and their Global Quest for Liberty (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006). Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1961). CONTENT REVIEWERS

Robert Bellinger, Sulfolk University, Black Studies Program Director; Robert Gross, University of Connecticut, History Professor Emeritus, Author p An all-black military company from Massachusetts, p Joining the Continental Army did not always p Quock Walker was one of many enslaved people of The Minutemen and Their World; Joanne Pope called the “” was celebrated in guarantee freedom for men of color. Sampson who sued for freedom in MA state courts during Melish, University of Kentucky, History Associate Boston. Governor presented the flag London remained enslaved during his military service the Revolution. In 1782, he signed his mark Professor, Author of Disowning Slavery: Gradual “as a tribute to their courage and devotion in the and his white enslaver, Thomas Eaton, collected his to this petition asking the state legislature to Emancipation and ‘Race’ in New England, 1789– cause of American Liberty.” (Massachusetts Historical wages. (Massachusetts Archives) affirm the judicial decision to grant his freedom. 1860. Society) (Massachusetts Archives)