The valor of the Negro soldiers of the American Revolution has been highly praised by statesmen and historians.  Writing to John Adams, a member of the Continental Congress, in 1775, to express his surprise at the prejudice against the colored troops in the South, General Thomas said:  “We have some Negroes but I look on them in general equally serviceable with other men for fatigue, and in action many of them had proved themselves brave.”  Graydon in speaking of the Negro troops he saw in Glover’s regiment at Marblehead, Massachusetts, said:  “But even in this regiment (a fine one) there were a number of Negroes."[60] Referring to the battle of Monmouth, Bancroft said:  “Nor may history omit to record that, of the ’revolutionary patriots’ who on that day perilled life for their country, more than seven hundred black men fought side by side with the white."[61] According to Lecky, “the Negroes proved excellent soldiers:  in a hard fought battle that secured the retreat of Sullivan they three times drove back a large body of Hessians."[62] We need no better evidence of the effective service of the Negro soldier than the manner in which the best people of Georgia honored Austin Dabney,[63] a mulatto boy who took a conspicuous part in many skirmishes with the British and Tories in Georgia.  While fighting under Colonel Elijah Clarke he was severely wounded by a bullet which in passing through his thigh made him a cripple for life.  He received a pension from the United States and was by an act of the legislature of Georgia given a tract of land.  He improved his opportunities, acquired other property, lived on terms of equality with some of his white neighbors, had the respect and confidence of high officials, and died mourned by all.

W. B. HARTGROVE

FOOTNOTES: 

[1] Bancroft, “History of the United States,” VIII, 110; MacMaster, “History of the United States.”

[2] See “Documents” in this number.

[3] The New York Gazette, Aug. 11, 1760.

[4] Supplement to the Boston Evening Post, May 23, 1763.

[5] Moore’s “Slavery in Mass.,” 243; Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., VII, 336.

[6] Adams, “Works of John Adams,” X, 315; Moore, “Notes on Slavery in Mass.,” 71.  Hamilton, Letter to Jay, March 14, 1779.

[7] Moore, “Historical Notes on the Employment of Negroes in the American Revolution,” 4.

[8] Bancroft, “History of the United States,” VIII, 110.

[9] Washburn, “History of Leicester,” 267.

[10] Washington, “The Story of the Negro,” I, 315.

[11] Manuscript, Massachusetts Archives, CLXXX, 241.

[12] Journals of the Continental Congress, 1775, pp. 221, 263; 1776, pp. 60, 874; 1779, pp. 386, 418.

[13] Ford, “Washington’s Writings,” VIII, 371.

[14] Journal of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, 553.