Black Patriots wereAfrican Americans who sided with thePatriots during theAmerican Revolution. The termBlack Patriots includes, but is not limited to, the 5,000 or more African Americans who served in theContinental Army and Patriotmilitias during theAmerican Revolutionary War.[1]
Their counterparts on thepro-British side were known asBlack Loyalists, which were African Americans who had sided with the British during the revolution. Thousands of American slaves escaped to British lines to take up their offers of freedom in exchange for military service as per Virginia GovernorDunmore's Proclamation of 1775, promising freedom to Blacks who deserted their Patriot masters and fought for the British and the 1779Philipsburg Proclamation, which declared the freedom all Blacks enslaved by Patriots who came over to the British side, whether or not they fought.
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Crispus Attucks is considered to be the first Black Patriot because he was killed in theBoston Massacre. Attucks was commemorated by his fellow Bostonians as amartyr for freedom. Attucks was a whaler who was believed to be of mixedNative American andAfrican ancestry, born in or aroundFramingham, Massachusetts.[3] His death in the Boston Massacre is considered to be the first Patriot fatality of the Revolution.[4]
TheBucks of America were an all-Black,Massachusetts Militia company organized in 1775 inBoston. This was the name given to one of two all-black units fighting for independence. There is little known of the campaign history of the Bucks company, or if they ever saw combat. It appears that they operated mainly around Boston. The Bucks of America may have acted primarily as anauxiliary police orsecurity service, in the city, during the war. They most likely did not see action against British forces.[citation needed]
After the British started enticing enslavedAfrican Americans to serve or assist their cause in exchange for emancipation, Patriot leaders began to recruitfree people of color inNew England and otherEast Coast regions to serve in theContinental Army. They were promised a life of relative luxury and social mobility if they joined the war. Slaves in the American North were trying to escape harsh treatment of their servitude. By joining the war, they believed they would be bettering their lives. Most of the time, Black Patriot soldiers served as individuals in a variety of predominantly white units of theContinental Army.
The1st Rhode Island Regiment, also known as "Varnum's Continentals", was a Continental Armyregiment fromRhode Island. It became well known as the "Black Regiment" because, for a time, it had several companies of African-American soldiers. It is regarded as thefirst African American military regiment, although its ranks were not exclusively African American.[5]
CaptainDavid Humphreys'All Black, 2nd Company, of theConnecticut Continental Line, served from October 1780-November 1782. On November 27, 1780, Humphrey's Black Company was assigned to the3rd Connecticut Regiment. On January 1, 1781, the Regiment was merged with the4th Connecticut Regiment, re-organized into nine companies, and re-designated as the1st Connecticut Regiment.
William "Billy" Lee was an enslaved valet ofGeorge Washington who served in theContinental Army and fought with the general's forces. Lee was considered to be Washington's favorite slave, and was often featured in the background of the general's portraits.[6]
Famed African American,Harvard scholar and professorHenry Louis Gates is descended from John Redman, a free African American who served in theContinental Army. Gates is currently working on a project to find all descendants of Black Patriots, who served in the American Revolutionary Continental Army.
The National Liberty Monument is a proposednational memorial to be located in the capital to honor the more than 5000 enslaved and free persons of African descent who served as soldiers or sailors, or provided civilian assistance during the American Revolutionary War. The memorial is an outgrowth of a failed effort to erect a Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial. This was authorized in 1986, but fundraising faltered and the memorial foundation dissolved in 2005.
Congress authorized the National Liberty Monument in January 2013. On September 8, 2014, theUnited States House of Representatives passed the joint resolutionapproving the location in the capital of a memorial to commemorate the more than 5,000 slaves and free Black people who fought for independence in the American Revolution.[7] The joint resolution would approve the location of a commemorative work to honor the more than 5000 slaves and free black persons who fought in the American Revolution.[8]