Freeborn Men of Color: the Franck Brothers in Revolutionary North America, 1755-1820
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FREEBORN MEN OF COLOR: THE FRANCK BROTHERS IN REVOLUTIONARY NORTH AMERICA, 1755-1820 Shirley L. Green A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2011 Committee: Ruth Wallis Herndon, Advisor Radhika Gajjala Graduate Faculty Representative Lillian Ashcraft-Eason Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina Rebecca Mancuso © 2011 Shirley Louise Swan Green All Rights Reserved iii Abstract Ruth Wallis Herndon, Advisor This dissertation examines the lives of William and Ben Franck, freeborn men of color, who used military service as a means to assert their manhood, gain standing in their community, and help to create free African American and African Canadian communities during the Revolutionary Era. It focuses on the lives and experiences of the Franck family from the 1750s, when Rufus Franck served in the French and Indian War, until the 1820s, when his younger son, Ben Franck, settled in Nova Scotia. At each step of the story, this study analyzes the communities of free people of color with whom the Franck brothers interacted. In doing so, this project challenges traditional narratives and stereotypes of African Americans during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras. The Franck brothers’ individual histories, closely analyzed, have the power to expand the prism through which we view early American people of color, so that we see their reality more sharply in three ways. 1. The establishment of free families of color and communities throughout North America, from the pre-Revolutionary period until postwar America, was limited by social prejudices and legal prohibitions. Legally, they were constrained by the black codes. Economically, they were relegated to menial, lower paying jobs. And socially, they faced discrimination in terms of housing, schooling, and religious practice. Despite these difficulties, many free blacks were able to build homes, communities and social institutions. 2. The service of freeborn men of color as Continental regulars during the Revolutionary War meant a hope for a better life and standing in their community, opportunity for iv economic competency, and excitement for young men whose experiences were stunted by black codes which regulated their behavior. 3. The experiences of black loyalists after the American Revolution included a pattern of migration and settlement in search of land and economic competency. The refusal to migrate to Sierra Leone, by some, indicated an attachment to their lives and families in Nova Scotia. v Dedicated to my mother, Sarah Franklin Swan and my father, Marshall O. Swan vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation chair, Ruth Wallis Herndon, for her support, understanding, expertise, and overwhelming faith in this project. I also appreciate the advice and insight provided by my committee members: Rebecca Mancuso, Lillian Ashcraft-Eason, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, and Radhika Gajjala. Additional thanks are also given to members of the monthly thesis/dissertation “club” who read the story of the Francks over and over. Thanks to Chris Eisel, Eve Crandall, Jim Schaeffer, Bethany Harding, and Kelly Watson. A special thanks to Kelly for the editing help. I would also like to thank my parents, Sarah Franklin Swan and Marshall Swan for their undying love and support. Additionally, I am always grateful to my son, Michael Green, Jr., for being the person that he is. This dissertation would not have been possible without the knowledge and support of two Franklin descendants, my uncle Ben Franklin and my aunt Hattie Franklin Gilton. Ben Franklin, the keeper of the Franck brothers’ tale, passed their story and legacy along to a new generation. Hattie Franklin Gilton’s research into our family history provided the catalyst for further research and investigation. I am extremely grateful to both of them. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE. THE FRANCK BROTHERS’ STORY AS HISTORICAL NARRATIVE AND FAMILY TRADITION .......................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FRANCK BROTHERS’ STORY ..................................................................... 15 CHAPTER II. THE COLONIAL FRANCKS: BEFORE THE REVOLUTION ............... 33 PART TWO: THE FRANCKS AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR ...................... 51 CHAPTER III. BROTHERS TO WAR: RACE, MASCULINITY, AND FAMILY TRADITION AS MOTIVATION FOR THE FRANCK BROTHERS’ SERVICE 53 CHAPTER IV. BROTHERS AT WAR: THE FIRST YEAR ............................................ 100 CHAPTER V. INTEGRATING SLAVE AND FREE: THE CREATION OF RHODE ISLAND’S REVOLUTIONARY “BLACK REGIMENT” ..................................... 124 CHAPTER VI. A POOR SOLDIER’S MARRIAGE: SARAH WILBUR AND BEN FRANCK ................................................................ 154 CHAPTER VII. “WHEN FIRST I DESERTED, I FELT MYSELF FREE”: THE SELF-FURLOUGH OF BEN FRANCK ......................................................... 175 CHAPTER VIII. BROTHERS DIVIDED: THE FRANCK BROTHERS DURING THE FINAL YEARS OF THE REVOLUTONARY WAR .................................... 207 PART THREE. THE FRANCK/FRANKLIN FAMILY AFTER THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION ....................................................................................................... 234 CHAPTER IX. WILLIAM FRANK, AFRICAN AMERICAN........................................... 236 CHAPTER X. “A POOR BUT SPIRITED PEOPLE”: viii BEN FRANKLIN, BLACK LOYALIST ................................................................. 262 CHAPTER XI. CONCLUSION: REDIRECTING THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA .............................. 321 REFERENCES ..........…........................................................................................................ 330 APPENDICES ...........…........................................................................................................ 352 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Photograph of Thomas Henry Franklin ..................................................................... 3 2 Photographs of First Rhode Island Regiment Monument.......................................... 260 3 Loyalist Migration Map ............................................................................................. 273 4 Map of black loyalists’ settlements............................................................................ 278 5 Photographs of Birchtown hut ................................................................................... 286 x LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 List of Freeman.......................................................................................................... 354 2 List of First Rhode Island Regiment Soldiers, identified as “Deserters,” prior to October, 1780.......................................................................................... 192 3 List of First Rhode Island Regiment Soldiers, identified as “Deserters” during the war ...................................................................................................... 214 4 List of Furloughed/Discharged Soldiers .................................................................... 222 5 List of Freemen after the war..................................................................................... 238 xi ABBREVIATIONS AHS Annapolis Heritage Society, The Genealogy Centre, Annapolis Royale, Nova Scotia, Canada CSR Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army during the Revolutionary War, RG 93, National Archives, Washington, D.C. LAC Library and Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Canada PANS Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada PTC Providence Town Council Records, Rhode Island Historical Society Rhode Island 1790 Census Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Rhode Island. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1908. RIHS Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence RISA Rhode Island State Archives RWPR Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Records, RG 15, National Archives, Washington, D.C. 1 PREFACE: THE FRANCK BROTHERS’ STORY AS HISTORICAL NARRATIVE AND FAMILY TRADITION In the spring of 1777, two young African American brothers enlisted for service with the Rhode Island regiments of the Continental Army. William and Ben Franck were teenagers. They had been raised in a free household, headed by Rufus Frank, a veteran of the French and Indian War, who settled in Johnston, Rhode Island, after the war and started a family. This dissertation focuses on the lives of these two young men. They eventually served together in the First Rhode Island Regiment, a primarily all-black battalion composed of ex-slaves and freeborn blacks. They stood guard at Newport, Rhode Island, and they wintered at Valley Forge with General Washington. Their joint service came to an abrupt end when Ben Franck left Continental service to join the British cause. His older brother, William, continued his service with the Continentals until the end of the war. William enlisted on April 20, 1777, at Tiverton, Rhode Island, across the state from his hometown of Johnston. William as the older son probably wanted to strike out on his own, to seek out a worthwhile occupation or livable wages. Ben Franck enlisted on May 12, 1777, a month after William, in the town of Providence, close to Johnston. Ben was probably still living at home with his parents and a younger sister. He probably felt