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We continue our look at African Americans in the American Revolution with…
BLACK LOYALISTS AND BLACK PATRIOTS
A brief background on Black Loyalists and Black Patriots:
A Black Patriot was an African American who remained loyal to the American side during the American Revolutionary War. Black Patriots were the opposite of the much larger group of Black Loyalists who were African Americans who took up the British offer of freedom and took refuge behind the Redcoat ranks. Black Patriots includes those (but is not limited to) those 5000 African Americans or more who fought on the Continental Army during the war.
For more info on Black Loyalists and Black Patriots, check out PBS’ “Africans in America: The Revolutionary War”.
BUCKS OF AMERICA
The Bucks of America was a patriot Massachusetts military company during the American Revolutionary War that was composed of African American soldiers. Little evidence survives about the unit.
When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, black soldiers—both slaves and freemen—served with white soldiers in integrated militia units in the New England colonies. Later that year, these New England militia units became the nucleus of the newly created Continental Army, the national army of the colonies. The inclusion of black soldiers in the army was controversial. By the end of 1775, the Continental Congress and the army’s Commander-in-Chief, George Washington, decided to stop enlisting black soldiers. Washington soon reversed this decision, however, both because of manpower shortages and because the British had offered freedom to slaves who would escape from Patriot masters to join the British. Washington permitted free blacks to enlist in the Continental Army. White owners could enroll their slaves as substitute forces for their own service.
On the local level, states made independent decisions about the enlistment of African Americans. Massachusetts continued to accept black soldiers in its integrated militia units.[1] It was also one of several northern states to create a segregated unit of black soldiers.[2] Blacks and abolitionists generally disapproved of the creation of segregated units, preferring integrated units.[3] The Bucks of America was the name given to the all-black Massachusetts company. Little is known of the campaign history of the company, but it seems to have operated in the Boston area.[4] It may have acted primarily as an auxiliary police or security service in the city during the war, and probably did not see action against British soldiers.[5]
The dates when the Bucks were formed and disbanded are unknown.[6]The company was celebrated in Boston after the
American Revolution ended. Governor John Hancock and his son, John George Washington Hancock, presented the company with a white silk flag, featuring a leaping buck and a pine tree, the symbol of New England. The original flag is held by the Massachusetts Historical Society.
George Middleton was one member of the Bucks of America. Some sources believe that he attained the rank of colonel. Middleton is the only buy viagra tenerife member of the “Bucks of America” to be known by name. Other members of his unit may also have been members of the Prince Hall Freemasonry Lodge, but proof is lacking.
*Information Courtesy of Wikipedia*
THE BLACK PIONEERS
The most famous of the Black Loyalist military units were the Black Pioneers and Guides. Divided into a number of different corps attached to larger armies, they served as scouts, raiders, and what we would today call military engineers. Their diverse situations mean that records of their activities are scarce – for the most part they weren’t treated as a standard regiment but were instead divided into small companies and assigned as needed to various units. For the most part they dug fortifications and built huts and accomodations. While not a fighting unit, they would have often been called on to work under heavy fire and in the most dangerous conditions. In the record books of their arrival in Port Roseway, they are divided into companies of about 30 men each.
Although the Pioneers were the most numerous black unit, the Black Brigade was more daring in action. This small band of elite guerillas raided and conducted assassinations all across New Jersey. A former slave known as Colonel Tye, one of the original leaders of the Ethiopian Regiment, was the man who led them. Tye survived the famine and sickness of that regiment and returned to fight in his native Monmouth County, New Jersey, exacting revenge against his old master and his friends. The Colonel was an honorific; the British never formally commissioned blacks as officers but sometimes informally bestowed (or perhaps allowed others to give them) officer’s titles.
He was the most feared Loyalist in the area, raiding fearlessly through New Jersey, from his first recorded action in the Battle of Monmouth in 1778 until 1780. Tye captured Patriots and much needed supplies, and in one celebrated raid murdered an infamous Patriot named Joseph Murray. Tye and the Black Brigade first fought independently, and then in partnership with a white unit called the Queen’s Rangers. The supplies they seized were vital to the survival of the Loyalists in New York.
During a raid on a patriot militia leader, Tye and his brigade were caught in a drawn out battle. Eventually they burned their target out, but not before Tye had taken a musket ball through his wrist. The wound quickly turned gangrenous, tetanus set in, and within weeks he had died. Probably the most effective and respected black soldier of the Revolution was lost.
Other fighting units that Black Loyalists served in included the Jersey Shore Volunteers, the King’s American Dragoons, the Jamaica Rangers, and the Mosquito Shore Volunteers. Blacks also commonly served in the navy and as musicians in nearly all regiments.
*Information Courtesy of Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People*