hands of the individual colonies.  Massachusetts on January 6, 1777, passed a resolution drafting every seventh man to complete her quota “without any exception, save the people called Quakers,” and this was as near as she came at any time in the war to the formal recognition of the Negro.  The Rhode Island Assembly in 1778 resolved to raise a regiment of slaves, who were to be freed at enlistment, their owners in no case being paid more than L120.  In the Battle of Rhode Island August 29, 1778, the Negro regiment under Colonel Greene distinguished itself by deeds of desperate valor, repelling three times the assaults of an overwhelming force of Hessian troops.  A little later, when Greene was about to be murdered, some of these same soldiers had to be cut to pieces before he could be secured.  Maryland employed Negroes as soldiers and sent them into regiments along with white men, and it is to be remembered that at the time the Negro population of Maryland was exceeded only by that of Virginia and South Carolina.  For the far South there was the famous Laurens plan for the raising of Negro regiments.

In a letter to Washington of March 16, 1779, Henry Laurens suggested the raising and training of three thousand Negroes in South Carolina.  Washington was rather conservative about the plan, having in mind the ever-present fear of the arming of Negroes and wondering about the effect on those slaves who were not given a chance for freedom.  On June 30, 1779, however, Sir Henry Clinton issued a proclamation only less far-reaching than Dunmore’s, threatening Negroes if they joined the “rebel” army and offering them security if they came within the British lines.  This was effective; assistance of any kind that the Continental Army could now get was acceptable; and the plan for the raising of several battalions of Negroes in the South was entrusted to Colonel John Laurens, a member of Washington’s staff.  In his own way Colonel Laurens was a man of parts quite as well as his father; he was thoroughly devoted to the American cause and Washington said of him that his only fault was a courage that bordered on rashness.  He eagerly pursued his favorite project; able-bodied slaves were to be paid for by Congress at the rate of $1,000 each, and one who served to the end of the war was to receive his freedom and $50 in addition.  In South Carolina, however, Laurens received little encouragement, and in 1780 he was called upon to go to France on a patriotic mission.  He had not forgotten the matter when he returned in 1782; but by that time Cornwallis had surrendered and the country had entered upon the critical period of adjustment to the new conditions.  Washington now wrote to Laurens:  “I must confess that I am not at all astonished at the failure of your plan.  That spirit of freedom which, at the commencement of this contest, would have gladly sacrificed everything to the attainment of its object, has long since subsided, and every selfish passion has taken its place.  It is not the public but private interest which influences the generality of mankind; nor can the Americans any longer boast an exception.  Under these circumstances, it would rather have been surprising if you had succeeded; nor will you, I fear, have better success in Georgia."[1]