Favorable as this condition of Negroes during the colonial period seemed, the situation became still more desirable during the Revolution itself.  This upheaval was social as well as political.  Aristocracy was suddenly humiliated and the man in the common walks of life found himself in power, grappling with problems which he had long desired to solve.  Sprung from the indentured servant poor white class, the new rulers had more sympathy for the man farthest down.  The slaves, therefore, received more consideration.  In the heat of the excitement of war the system lost almost all of its rigor, the slave codes in some cases falling into desuetude.  The contest for liberty was in the mouths of some orators of the Revolution the cause of the blacks as well as that of the whites, and the natural rights of the former were openly discussed in urging the independence of the United States.  When men like Laurens, Henry, Hamilton and Otis spoke for the rights of the American colonies, they were not silent on the duty of the American people toward their slaves.[6] In 1774 a patriot in the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts spoke of the “propriety, that while we are attempting to free ourselves from slavery, our present embarrassments, and preserve ourselves from slavery, that we also take into consideration the state and circumstances of the Negro slaves in this province."[7]

When the Revolution came the Negro was actually in the army before the question of his enlistment could be raised by those who had not yet been won to the cause of universal freedom.  Feeling the same patriotism which the white man experienced, the Negro bared his breast to the bullet and gave his life as a sacrifice for the liberty of his country.  According to Bancroft, “the roll of the army of Cambridge had from its first formation borne the names of men of color.”  “Free Negroes,” said he, “stood in the ranks by the side of white men.  In the beginning of the war they had entered the provincial army; the first general order which was issued by Ward had required a return, among other things, of the complexion of the soldiers; and black men, like others, were retained in the service after the troops were adopted by the continent."[8]

Before the various officials had had time to decide whether or not the Negro should be enlisted, many had numbered themselves among the first to spill their blood in behalf of American liberty.  Peter Salem had distinguished himself at Bunker Hill by killing Major Pitcairn,[9] a number of other Negroes under the command of Major Samuel Lawrence had heroically imperilled their lives and rescued him when he had advanced so far beyond his troops that he was about to be surrounded and taken prisoner,[10] and Salem Poor of Colonel Frye’s regiment had acquitted himself with such honor in the battle of Charlestown that fourteen American officers commended him to the Continental Congress for his valor.[11] But great as were the services rendered by these patriots of