In the month of July, 1847, the eloquent Bard of Freedom, JOHN G.
WHITTIER, contributed to the National Era a statement of facts relative
to the Military Services of Colored Americans in the Revolution of
1776, and the War of 1812. Being a member of the Society of Friends,
he disclaimed any eulogy upon the shedding of blood, even in the cause
of acknowledged Justice, but, says he, "when we see a whole nation
doing honor to the memories of one class of its defenders, to the
total neglect of another class, who had the misfortune to be of darker
complexion, we cannot forego the satisfaction of inviting notice to
certain historical facts, which, for the last half century, have been
quietly elbowed aside, as no more deserving of a place in patriotic
recollections, than the descendants of the men to whom the facts in
question relates, have a place in a Fourth of July procession [in the
nation's estimation].
"Of the services and sufferings of the Colored Soldiers of the
Revolution, no attempt has, to our knowledge, been made to preserve a
record. They have had no historian. With here and there an exception,
they have all passed away, and only some faint traditions linger among
their descendants. Yet enough is known to show that the Free Colored
Men of the United States bore their full proportion of the sacrifices
and trials of the Revolutionary War."
In any attempt, then, to rescue from oblivion the name and fame of
those who, though "tinged with the hated stain," yet had warm hearts
and active hands in the "times that tried men's souls," I will first
gratefully tender him my thanks for the service his compilation has
afforded me, and my acknowledgments also to other individuals who have
kindly contributed facts for this pamphlet. Imperfect as these pages
may prove, to prepare even these, journeys have been made to confer
with the living, and even pilgrimages to grave-yards, to save all that
may still be gleaned from their fast disappearing records.
There are those who will ask,--why make a parade of the _military_
services of Colored Americans, instead of recording their attention
_to_ and progress _in_ the various other departments of civil, social,
and political elevation? To this let me answer, that I yield to no one
in appreciating the propriety and pertinency of _every_ effort on the
part of Colored Americans, in _all_ pursuits, which, as members of
the human family, it becomes them to share in; and, among these, _my_
predilections are _least_ and _last_ for what constitutes the pomp and
circumstances of War.
Did the limits of this work permit, I could furnish an elaborate list
of those who have distinguished themselves as Teachers, Editors,
Orators, Mechanics, Clergymen, Artists, Farmers, Poets, Lawyers,
Physicians, Merchants, etc., to whose perennial fame be it recorded
that most of their attainments were reached through difficulties
unknown to any but those whose sin is the curl of the hair and the hue
of the skin.
There is now an institution of learning in the State of New York,
Central College, which recently employed, as Professor of Belles
Lettres, a young Colored man, CHARLES L. REASON, and who, on resigning
his chair, dropped his mantle gracefully upon the shoulders of WILLIAM
G. ALLEN, another Colored young man as worthy for scholastic abilities
and gentlemanly deportment.
These men, as Teachers, especially in Colleges open to all,
irrespective of accidental differences, are doing a mighty work in
uprooting prejudice. The influences thus gathered are already felt.
Many a young white man or woman who, in early life has imbibed wrong
notions of the Colored man's inferiority, is taught a new lesson by the
Colored Professors at McGrawville; and they leave its honored walls
with thanksgiving in their hearts for the conversion from Pro-Slavery
Heathenism to the Gospel of Christian Freedom; and are thus prepared to
go forth as Pioneers in the cause of Human Brotherhood.
But the Orator's voice and Author's pen have both been eloquent
in detailing the merits of Colored Americans in these various
ramifications of society, while a combination of circumstances have
veiled from the public eye a narration of those military services which
are generally conceded as passports to the honorable and lasting notice
of Americans.
BOSTON, May, 1851.