Part 1

Produced by hekula03, Alan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)

COLORED AMERICANS IN THE WARS OF 1776 AND 1812

By WILLIAM C. NELL

PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED FOR H. T. KEALING, 681 PINE STREET 1902

A STATEMENT.

This little volume sets forth in compact form the achievements of the American Negro during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. It is compiled from valuable records, diaries, documents and articles in newspapers nearly contemporaneous with the times of which they treat, and it may, therefore, be considered a valuable compendium to the man who seeks information on a subject but scantily treated in the standard historical works to which reference is usually made.

The matter herein contained was first printed in a Canada edition called "Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812." It is now out of print, but matter of so great value in fixing the patriotic status of a people so long denied honorable place among the nation-makers of America must not be allowed to fade from view; especially at this time when archives and libraries are being ransacked by scholarly men of the Negro race for defensive data against the insidious attacks of wily foes upon the claims and merit of the colored race considered as soldiers and citizens.

A reference to the bibliography and authorities quoted by Mr. NELL, the author, is an addition to the original volume which will be appreciated by those inquirers who have access to good libraries and wish to verify the facts here given.

To have collected all these scattered and fugitive allusions involved no small labor, and deserves the thanks of all who want to see the material for a full and fair history of the United States so gathered into one convenient place that the future historian cannot fail to find it, if he be desirous; nor refuse to use it, if he be conscientious.

It should be mentioned that matter which has became untrue by the progress of events since the first edition of this book has been carefully exscinded.

H. T. KEALING.

PHILADELPHIA, Pa., September 1, 1902.

INTRODUCTION.

The following pages are an effort to stem the tide of prejudice against the Colored race. The white man despises the colored man, and has come to think him fit only for the menial drudgery to which the majority of the race has been so long doomed. "This prejudice was never reasoned up, and will never be reasoned down." _It must be lived down._ In a land where wealth is the basis of reputation, the colored man must prove his sagacity and enterprise by successful trade or speculation. To show his capacity for mental culture he must BE, not merely _claim the right to be_, a scholar. Professional eminence is peculiarly the result of practice and long experience. The colored people, therefore, owe it to each other and to their race to extend liberal encouragement to colored lawyers, physicians and teachers, as well as to mechanics and artisans of all kinds. Let no individual despair. Not to name the living, let me hold up the example of one whose career deserves to be often spoken of, as complete proof that a colored man can rise to social respect and the highest employment and usefulness, in spite not only of the prejudice that crushes his race, but of the heaviest personal burdens. Dr. DAVID RUGGLES, poor, blind and an invalid, founded a well-known Water Cure Establishment in the town where I write, erected expensive buildings, won honorable distinction as a most successful and skilful practitioner, secured the warm regard and esteem of this community, and left a name embalmed in the hearts of many who feel that they owe life to his eminent skill and careful practice. Black though he was, his aid was sought sometimes by those numbered among the Pro-Slavery class. To be sure, his is but a single instance, and I know it required pre-eminent ability to make a way up to light through the overwhelming mass of prejudice and contempt. But it is these rare cases of strong will and eminent endowment,--always sure to make the world feel whether it will or no,--that will finally wring from a contemptuous community the reluctant confession of the colored man's equality.

I ask, therefore, the reader's patronage of the following sheets, on several grounds; first, as an encouragement to the author, Mr. NELL, to pursue a subject which well deserves illustration on other points besides those on which he has labored; secondly, to scatter broadly as possible, the facts here collected, as instance of the colored man's success--a record of the genius he has shown, and the services he has rendered society in the higher departments of exertion; thirdly, to encourage such men as RUGGLES to perseverance, by showing a generous appreciation of their labors and a cordial sympathy in their trials.

Some things set down here go to prove colored men patriotic--though denied a country; and all show a wish, on their part, to prove themselves men, in a land whose laws refuse to recognize their manhood. If the reader shall, sometimes, blush to find that in the days of our country's weakness, we remembered their power to help or harm us, and availed ourselves gladly of their generous services, while we have since, used our strength only to crush them the more completely, let him resolve henceforth to do them justice himself and claim it for them of others. If any shall be convinced by these facts, that they need only a free path to show the same capacity and reap the same rewards as other races, let such labor to open every door to their efforts, and hasten the day when to be black shall not, almost necessarily, doom a man to poverty and the most menial drudgery. There is touching eloquence, as well as Spartan brevity, in the appeal of a well-known colored man, Rev. PETER WILLIAMS, of New York:

"We are _natives_ of this country; we ask only to be treated as well as _foreigners_. Not a few of our fathers suffered and bled to purchase its independence; we ask only to be treated as well as those who fought against it. We have toiled to cultivate it, and to raise it to its present prosperous condition; we ask only to share equal privileges with those who come from distant lands to enjoy the fruits of our labor."

WENDELL PHILLIPS.

NORTHAMPTON, Oct. 25, 1852.

PREFACE.

In the month of July, 1847, the eloquent Bard of Freedom, JOHN G. WHITTIER, contributed to the National Era a statement of facts relative to the Military Services of Colored Americans in the Revolution of 1776, and the War of 1812. Being a member of the Society of Friends, he disclaimed any eulogy upon the shedding of blood, even in the cause of acknowledged Justice, but, says he, "when we see a whole nation doing honor to the memories of one class of its defenders, to the total neglect of another class, who had the misfortune to be of darker complexion, we cannot forego the satisfaction of inviting notice to certain historical facts, which, for the last half century, have been quietly elbowed aside, as no more deserving of a place in patriotic recollections, than the descendants of the men to whom the facts in question relates, have a place in a Fourth of July procession [in the nation's estimation].

"Of the services and sufferings of the Colored Soldiers of the Revolution, no attempt has, to our knowledge, been made to preserve a record. They have had no historian. With here and there an exception, they have all passed away, and only some faint traditions linger among their descendants. Yet enough is known to show that the Free Colored Men of the United States bore their full proportion of the sacrifices and trials of the Revolutionary War."

In any attempt, then, to rescue from oblivion the name and fame of those who, though "tinged with the hated stain," yet had warm hearts and active hands in the "times that tried men's souls," I will first gratefully tender him my thanks for the service his compilation has afforded me, and my acknowledgments also to other individuals who have kindly contributed facts for this pamphlet. Imperfect as these pages may prove, to prepare even these, journeys have been made to confer with the living, and even pilgrimages to grave-yards, to save all that may still be gleaned from their fast disappearing records.

There are those who will ask,--why make a parade of the _military_ services of Colored Americans, instead of recording their attention _to_ and progress _in_ the various other departments of civil, social, and political elevation? To this let me answer, that I yield to no one in appreciating the propriety and pertinency of _every_ effort on the part of Colored Americans, in _all_ pursuits, which, as members of the human family, it becomes them to share in; and, among these, _my_ predilections are _least_ and _last_ for what constitutes the pomp and circumstances of War.

Did the limits of this work permit, I could furnish an elaborate list of those who have distinguished themselves as Teachers, Editors, Orators, Mechanics, Clergymen, Artists, Farmers, Poets, Lawyers, Physicians, Merchants, etc., to whose perennial fame be it recorded that most of their attainments were reached through difficulties unknown to any but those whose sin is the curl of the hair and the hue of the skin.

There is now an institution of learning in the State of New York, Central College, which recently employed, as Professor of Belles Lettres, a young Colored man, CHARLES L. REASON, and who, on resigning his chair, dropped his mantle gracefully upon the shoulders of WILLIAM G. ALLEN, another Colored young man as worthy for scholastic abilities and gentlemanly deportment.

These men, as Teachers, especially in Colleges open to all, irrespective of accidental differences, are doing a mighty work in uprooting prejudice. The influences thus gathered are already felt. Many a young white man or woman who, in early life has imbibed wrong notions of the Colored man's inferiority, is taught a new lesson by the Colored Professors at McGrawville; and they leave its honored walls with thanksgiving in their hearts for the conversion from Pro-Slavery Heathenism to the Gospel of Christian Freedom; and are thus prepared to go forth as Pioneers in the cause of Human Brotherhood.

But the Orator's voice and Author's pen have both been eloquent in detailing the merits of Colored Americans in these various ramifications of society, while a combination of circumstances have veiled from the public eye a narration of those military services which are generally conceded as passports to the honorable and lasting notice of Americans.

BOSTON, May, 1851.

SERVICES OF COLORED AMERICANS.

MASSACHUSETTS.

On the fifth of March, 1851, a petition was presented to the Massachusetts Legislature, asking an appropriation of $1,500 for erecting a monument to the memory of Crispus Attucks, the first martyr in the Boston Massacre of March 5th, 1770. The matter was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs, who granted a hearing of the petitioners, in whose behalf appeared Wendell Phillips, Esq., and Wm. C. Nell, but finally submitted an adverse report, on the ground that a boy, Christopher Snyder, was previously killed. Admitting this fact (which was the result of a very different sense from that in which Attucks fell), does not offset the claims of Attucks, and those who made the fifth of March famous in our annals--the day which history selects as the dawn of the American Revolution.

Botta's History and Hewe's Reminiscences (the tea party survivor) establishes the fact that the colored man, Attucks, was of and with the people, and was never regarded otherwise. Botta, in speaking of the scenes of the 5th of March, says "The people were greatly exasperated. The multitude armed with clubs, ran towards King Street, crying, 'Let us drive out these ribalds; they have no business here!" The rioters rushed furiously towards the Custom House; they approached the sentinel, crying, 'Kill him, kill him!' They assaulted him with snowballs, pieces of ice, and whatever they could lay their hands upon." The guard was then called, and, in marching to the Custom House, "they encountered," continues Botta, "a band of the populace, led by a mulatto named Attucks, who brandished their clubs, and peltered them with snowballs. The maledictions, the execrations of the multitude were horrible. In the midst of a torrent of invectives from every quarter, the military were challenged to fire. The populace advanced to the points of their bayonets. The soldiers appeared like statues; the cries, the howlings, the menaces, the violent din of bells still sounding the alarm, increased the confusion and the horrors of these moments; at length the mulatto and twelve of his companions, pressing forward, environed the soldiers, and striking their muskets with their clubs cried to the multitude: 'Be not afraid, they dare not fire; why do they hesitate, why do you not kill them, why not crush them at once!' The mulatto lifted his arm against Captain Preston, and having turned one of the muskets, he seized the bayonet with his left hand, as if he intended to execute his threat. At this moment, confused cries were heard: 'The wretches dare not fire!' Firing succeeds, Attucks is slain. The other discharges follow. Three were killed, five severely wounded, and several others slightly."

Attucks was killed by Montgomery, one of Captain Preston's soldiers. He had been foremost in resisting and was first slain; as proof of front and close engagement, received two balls, one in each breast.

John Adams, counsel for the soldiers, admitted that Attucks appeared to have undertaken to be the Hero of the night, and to lead the army with banners. He and Caldwell, not being residents of Boston, were both buried from Faneuil Hall. The citizens generally participated in the funeral solemnities.

The Boston Transcript, of March, 1851, published an anonymous correspondence disparaging the whole affair; denouncing Crispus Attucks as a very firebrand of disorder and sedition, the most conspicuous, inflammatory, and uproarious of the misguided populace, and who, if he had not fallen a martyr, would richly have reserved hanging as an incendiary. If the leader, Attucks, deserved the epithets above applied is it not a legitimate inference that the citizens who followed on are included, and hence, should swing in his company on the gallows? If the leader and his patriot band were misguided, the distinguished orators who, in after days, commemorated the fifth day of March, must, indeed, have been misguided, and with them the masses who were inspired by their eloquence; for John Hancock, in 1774, invokes the injured shades of Maverick, Gray, Caldwell, Attucks, Carr.

And Judge Dawes, in 1775, thus alludes to the band of misguided incendiaries. "The provocation of that night must be numbered among the master springs which gave the first motion to a vast machinery, a noble and comprehensive system of national independence."

Ramsay's History of the American Revolution, Vol. I., p. 22, adds, "The anniversary of the 5th of March was observed with great solemnity; eloquent orators were successively employed to preserve the remembrance of it fresh in the mind. On these occasions the blessings of liberty--the horrors of Slavery, and the danger of a standing army were presented to the public view. These annual orations administered fuel to the fire of liberty, and kept it burning with an irresistible flame."

The 5th of March continued to be celebrated for the above reasons, until the Declaration of American Independence was substituted in its place, and its orators were expected to consider the feelings, manners, and principles of the former as giving birth to the latter.

In judging, then, of the merits of those who launched the American Revolution, we would not take counsel from the Tories of that or the present day, but rather heed the approving eulogy of Lovell, Hancock and Warren.

Welcome, then, be every taunt that such correspondents have flung at Attucks and his company, as the best evidence of their merits and strongest claims on our gratitude. Envy and the foe do not labor to abuse any but prominent champions of a cause.

The rejection of this petition was to be expected, if we accept the axiom that a Colored man never gets Justice done him in the United States, except by mistake. The petitioners only asked for that Justice, and that the name of Crispus Attucks be surrounded with the same emblems constantly appropriated by a grateful country to other gallant Americans.

And yet let it be recorded that the same session of the Legislature which had refused the Attucks monument, granted one to Isaac Davis, of Concord,--both were promoters of the American Revolution; but one was white, the other black--and this fact is the only solution to the problem why Justice is not meted out.[1]

[1] A monument to Crispus Attucks has been erected on Boston Commons since the above was written.--H. T. K.

Extract from the Speech of Hon. Anson Burlingame, in Faneuil Hall, October 13, 1852, when alluding to the volunteer participation of Boston officials in returning Thomas Sims to bondage, in April, 1851.

"The conquering of New England prejudices in favor of liberty, 'does not pay.' It 'does not pay,' I submit, to put our fellow citizens under practical martial law; to beat the drum in our streets; to clothe our temples of justice in chains, and to creep along by the light of the morning star, over the ground wet with the blood of Crispus Attucks, the noble Colored man, who fell in King Street, before the muskets of tyranny, away in the dawn of our Revolution; creep by Faneuil Hall, silent and dark; by the Green Dragon, where that noble mechanic, Paul Revere, once mustered the sons of liberty; within sight of Prospect Hill, where we first unfurled the glorious banner; creep along with funeral pace, bearing a brother, a man made in the image of his God, not to the grave--oh, that were merciful, for in the grave there is no work and no device, and the voice of a master never comes--but back to the degradation of a Slavery which kills out of a living body an immortal soul. (Great sensation.) Oh! where is the man now who took part in that mournful transaction, who would wish, looking back upon it, to avow it."

During the Revolutionary War, public opinion was so strongly in favor of the abolition of slavery, that, in some of the country towns, votes were passed in town meetings that they would have no slaves among them; and that they would not exact, of masters, any bonds for the maintenance of liberated blacks, should they become incapable of supporting themselves. A liberty-loving antiquarian copied the following from Suffolk Probate Record, and published it in the Liberator of February, 1847:

"Know all men by these presents, that I, Jonathan Jackson, of Newburyport, in the county of Essex, gentleman, in consideration of the impropriety I feel, and have felt in beholding any person in constant bondage--more especially at the time when my country is so warmly contending for the liberty every man ought to enjoy--and having sometime since promised my Negro man, Pomp, that I would give him his freedom--and in further consideration of five shillings, paid me by said Pomp, I do hereby liberate, manumit, and set him free; and I do hereby remise and release unto said Pomp, all demands of whatever nature I have against said Pomp.

"In witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand and seal, this nineteenth June, 1776.

"JONATHAN JACKSON. (Seal).

"Witness, Mary Coburn, Wm. Noyes."

It only remains to say a word respecting the two parties of the foregoing indenture.

Jonathan Jackson, of Newburyport, we well remember to have heard spoken of, in our boyish days, by honored lips, as a most upright and thorough gentleman of the old school, possessing talents and character of the first standing. He was the first Collector of the Port of Boston, under Washington's administration and was Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for many years, and died in 1810. A tribute to his memory and his worth, said to be from the pen of the late John Lowell, appeared in the Columbian Sentinel, March 10, 1810. His immediate descendants have long resided in this city, are extensively known, and as widely and justly honored.

Pomp took the name of his late master, upon his emancipation, and soon after enlisted in the army, as Pomp Jackson, served through the whole war of the revolution and obtained an honorable discharge at its termination. He afterwards settled in Andover, near a pond, still known as "Pomp's Pond," where some of his descendants yet live. In this case of emancipation, it appears, instead of "cutting his master's throat," he only slashed the throats of his country's enemies.

The late Governor Eustis, of Massachusetts, the pride and boast of the democracy of the East, himself an active participant in the War, and therefore a most competent witness, states that the Freed Colored Soldiers entered the ranks with the whites. The time of those who were Slaves was purchased of their masters, and they were induced to enter the service in consequence of a law of Congress, by which, on condition of their serving in the ranks during the War, they were made Freemen. The hope of Liberty inspired them with the courage to oppose their breasts to the Hessian bayonet at Red Bank, and enabled them to endure with fortitude the cold and famine of Valley Forge.

Seymour Burr was a Slave in Connecticut, to a brother of Col. Aaron Burr, from whom he derived his name. Though treated with much favor by his master, his heart yearned for liberty, and he seized an occasion to induce several of his fellow servants to escape in a boat, intending to join the British, that they might become Freemen; but being pursued by their owners, armed with implements of death, they were compelled to surrender.

Burr's master, contrary to his expectation, did not inflict corporal punishment, but reminded him of the kindness with which he had been treated, and asked what inducement he could have in leaving him. Burr replied that he wanted his liberty. His owner finally proposed, that if he would give him the bounty money he might join the American army, and at the end of the war be his own man. Burr, willing to make any sacrifice for his liberty, consented, and served faithfully during the campaign, attached to the Seventh Regiment, commanded by Colonel, afterwards Governor Brooks, of Melford. He was present at the siege of Fort Catskill, and endured much suffering from starvation and cold. After some skirmishing the army was relieved by the arrival of Gen. Washington, who, as witnessed by him, shed tears of joy on finding them unexpectedly safe.

Burr married one of the Punkapog tribe of Indians, and settled in Canton, Mass., where his widow now, aged one hundred and one years, draws his pension.

Primus Hall, a native Bostonian, and long known to the citizens as a soap-boiler, served in the revolutionary war, and used to entertain the social circle with various anecdotes of military experience; among them an instance, where being himself in possession of a blanket, at a time when such a luxury had become scarce, Gen. Washington entered the tent, having appropriated his own bedding for the worn-out soldiers, Hall immediately tendered his blanket for the General, who replied, he preferred sharing his privations with his fellow soldiers, and accordingly Gen. Washington and Primus Hall reposed for the night together.