革命性的参与
——亚伯拉罕·皮尔斯等人. 1780年8月17日
Many African Americans participated in military activities during the American Revolution. It is estimated that 5,000 Black people served in the Revolutionary army. 一个更大的数字(可能是100个),000) fled to British-controlled territory and many served with the British forces. 在战争的头几年里, George Washington was reluctant to use Black soldiers in battle, 但是随着战争的进行, 双方组成黑色单位. 在马萨诸塞州, where the small African American population included some free citizens, 有些人在正规民兵中服役, 状态, 和大陆军团, 而不是分开, 种族隔离的单位.
During the earliest battles of the American Revolution, Black and white people fought together against the British troops within some of the militia units raised by the New England colonies. After the Continental Army was formed in mid-1775, the Continental Congress and General George Washington implemented a series of different enlistment policies regarding Black soldiers. In July 1775 no new free Black people were permitted to enlist in the Continental Army and some efforts were made by the Continental Congress to remove all Black people then serving from the existing regiments. 然而, as the Revolution continued and troops were needed to sustain the war effort, the Continental Congress and Army changed their policies. 1776年1月, the Congress removed the restriction on reenlisting free Black people and in 1777 General Washington issued orders that regiments could enlist any free man (regardless of the color of his skin).
The British realized that they could help their military cause in direct and indirect ways by encouraging enslaved people to run away. 1775年11月, 弗吉尼亚州长, 邓莫尔勋爵(约翰·默里), proclaimed that any indentured servant or enslaved person who supported the British forces would eventually receive his or her freedom. Even though not all of these former enslaved people directly served British military causes, the British knew that the loss of labor and disruption of colonial society would undermine aspects of life in the colonies.
The 麻萨诸塞州 Historical Society holds few records for the military service of Black people in the Revolution, although the names of individual soldiers who are identified as "negroes" or who have names often given to enslaved people appear in manuscript muster roles and other military records. Two documents from 1780 relate to Phelix Cuff, a Black man who served in the militia from Waltham, 麻萨诸塞州, but these documents convey little about his service record. They do reinforce the fact that free Blacks could enlist, but enslaved people did not have the power of choice. 一个文档 indicates that an officer discharged Phelix Cuff because he felt there was evidence to support the position of a man named Edward Garfield who claimed that Cuff was his property. 第二个文档 written by some selectmen from Waltham refers to a "pretended bill of sale" that Edward Garfield held and the selectmen 状态 that they thought Cuff was a free man when he enlisted three months previously.
An all-Black military company called the Bucks of America was celebrated in Boston at the end of the American Revolution. 州长约翰·汉考克发表讲话 a silk flag bearing its emblem, a leaping buck against a pine tree to the company "as a tribute to their courage and devotion in the cause of American Liberty" (Nell, 1852, p. 13) but no documentation definitively links them to a particular Revolutionary battle. (见也 美国雄鹿勋章.)
美国雄鹿队的一员, 乔治·米德尔顿, had the same name as an eyewitness to the Battle of Groton Heights and some sources mistakenly concluded that the Bucks fought in Connecticut. 然而 the 乔治·米德尔顿 who saw the battle at Groton was a twelve-year-old resident of that town (born in 1769) and later became the mayor of Newark, 纽约(阿林), 1882, p. 89). 乔治·米德尔顿就是其中一员, 有时, 领导者, of the Bucks of America was a member of the African Lodge (#459) in Boston. He was also a member of the African Society (see the list of members on the last page of the 《利记APP官网手机版》) and he was living on Belknap Street in Boston when he died in 1815 at the age of 80. Many sources (but not his obituary) refer to him as Colonel Middleton.
特色项目
Letter from Abraham Peirce and others from Waltham, 麻萨诸塞州, regarding Phelix Cuff's service in the militia, 1780年8月17日
Letter from John Jacobs to William Heath regarding the status of Phelix Cuff, 26 August 1780
美国雄鹿勋章