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By Root 1442 0

many felt that victory over the British would mean freedom for any relatives still in bondage, and a general freedom for all blacks. Some black soldiers were motivated by a sense of adventure, just like white troops. Money was a reason for the enlistment of the black freedmen, too. Most were recruited after the winter of 1778, when Continental currency had been severely devalued. Congress and the states offered many soldiers who signed up later in the war one hundred acres of land instead of the worthless paper money. That much land was a huge incentive for black freedmen who had no land, little money, and usually had trouble landing jobs.

One of the first Americans to die for independence was Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave, who was one of five men shot and killed during the Boston Massacre in 1770. Black involvement in the war itself began in the very first battle, at Lexington, Massachusetts, as several African American minutemen fought against the British army. Several black soldiers participated in the battle of Bunker Hill. Peter Salem became the most famous of them when he was depicted in the famous painting of the battle by artist John Trumbull.

Blacks were in the first militia raised in the southern states, too. British troops found that out in 1775 in a heated battle at a bridge over the Elizabeth River in Virginia. There they encountered a black freedman named Billy Flora. The American regiment moved back into a breastwork, leaving wooden planks over the river. Flora was the last sentinel to run back over the bridge after firing what he thought was a final volley at the British. He realized that the planks could be used by the British to cross the water, too, and began to pull them up. He soon found himself in a hail of musket balls. Flora dislodged the planks, dragging them to the American side of the river as the English fired furiously at him. As he slowly backed off, he began to fire away at the British. Eyewitnesses said he wound up firing eight volleys at the enemy. Flora, who later purchased the freedom of his family, returned to the army in the war of 1812 as an old man, and fought against the British once more.10

The presence of black troops in the military during the early days of the war disturbed many public officials. There were several reasons for this. First, many complained that the black freedmen who signed up were really not free, but runaway slaves who lied about their identity. Second, plantation owners in the South and subsistence farmers in the North said that they could not run their businesses without slave labor. Third, and most importantly, many feared bands of black soldiers with guns would start civil insurrections. This fear was greatest among planters in the South who owned large numbers of slaves. It was so great in Maryland that the governor issued hundreds of muskets and pistols to local counties to distribute to planters to defend themselves in case a slave rebellion began. In South Carolina, the Council on Safety posted warnings against slave uprisings.11

The black soldiers in the American army may have earned their freedom, but they rarely garnered the respect of the white officers. Lt. Alex Graydon wrote that the Negroes in a Massachusetts regiment he saw “had a disagreeable, degrading effect” on the entire army.12 A captain at Fort Ticonderoga wrote that the American regiments comprised “the strangest mixture of Negroes, Indians, and whites, with old men and mere children, which together with a nasty lousy appearance make a most shocking spectacle” and made him “sick of the service.”13 General Philip Schuyler wrote that the black soldiers “disgrace our arms.”14 General William Heath had no complaints about the black troops under his command, but did not believe that they should be mixed with white soldiers.15 John Adams complained that the army had too many Negroes.16 One New England company’s officer wrote that everyone in his community was opposed to the British except “lunatics, idiots, and Negroes.” Another company permitted its men to vote on whether or not blacks