Blacks in the Navy in the revolutionary war

Many Black Loyalists descendants now live in Canada. Despite Dunmore's promises, the majority were not given their freedom. Many of the rest served as orderlies, mechanics, laborers, servants, scouts and guides, although more than half died in smallpox epidemics that swept the British forces, and many were driven out of the British lines when food ran low. Tens of thousands of slaves escaped to the British lines, although possibly as few as 1,000 served under arms. Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, issued an emancipation proclamation in November 1775, promising freedom to runaway slaves who fought for the British Sir Henry Clinton issued a similar edict in New York in 1779. Black soldiers served in northern militias from the outset, but this was forbidden in the South, where slave-owners feared arming slaves. African-Americans, slaves and free blacks, served on both sides during the war. Revolutionary War (1775-1783) Īfrican American Crispus Attucks was the first martyr in the Patriot cause at the Boston Massacre (1770) leading up the the American Revolution.

Nell, Services of colored Americans in the wars of 17.Boston, Massachusetts, 1851 Camp Fires of the Afro-American or, The Colored Man as a Patriot.Philadelphia: Afro-American Pub Co., 1899 reprint New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1970.

Santa Barbara: California: ABC-CLIO, 2004. African Americans fought and served valiantly in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, the World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the current War in Iraq. No war has been fought by the United States in which the African American soldiers did not participate. African American Online Genealogy RecordsAmericans with African ancestry have served in United States military units since the arrival of the first black slaves in 1619.

Blacks in the Navy in the revolutionary war