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MLA - Michals, Debra. " Deborah Sampson." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Deborah Sampson." National Women's History Museum. 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/deborah-sampson.

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Deborah Sampson disguised herself as a man and joined the Patriot forces during the American Revolution. She was the only woman to earn a military pension for participation in the Revolutionary army.

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Soldier Salem Poor fought in several Revolutionary War battles, including the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Salem Poor has remained one of the very few fabled African American heroes of the Revolutionary War since 1775, due to his strength and stability at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Officers present at the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775) submitted a petition to General George Washington that described his outstanding abilities in battle.

Born enslaved in Andover, Massachusetts, Salem Poor (1747-1802) worked on the farm of John and Rebecca Poor. In 1769, at 22 years old, he purchased his freedom for 27 pounds, which equaled a working man's annual earnings.

In May of 1775, Poor enlisted in the interim Massachusetts Army. This last-minute army consisted of colonial forces primarily from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. Thus, the troops that fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 were under the command of Massachusetts and New Hampshire officers. On June 13, leaders of these colonial forces besieging Boston learned that the British were planning to send troops out from the city to fortify the unoccupied hills surrounding it. That would give them total control of Boston Harbor. The local forces had three days' time to plan a response. The officers did not agree on how to defend the Charlestown Heights, nor did they agree on a hierarchy of authority. Nevertheless, through the night of June 16, 1,200 colonial troops stealthily occupied Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill.

During the battle, Salem Poor served in an Andover unit commanded by Capt. Thomas Drury, whose company included several other African American minute men: Titus Coburn, Peter Salem, and Seymour Burr. Poor's unit arrived as a secondary force, in order to "assist in the building of fortifications." Instead, due to dire circumstances, they covered the retreating units that had constructed the redoubt on Breed's Hill and had run out of ammunition. His unit received heavy fire; the British Regular Army killed five Andover men near him on the spot and leaft another six seriously wounded. As he helped the wounded, Poor slowly retreated and fired one last shot that killed British Army Lt. Col. James Abercrombie. The British Regular army successfully drove the New England forces off the Charlestown Peninsula, but not without paying a heavy price in losses themselves.

In mid-December, Continental Army regimental commanders who had seen Salem Poor's conduct at Breed's Hill petitioned the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to recognize Poor's exemplary service there. The regimental commanders cited that he had "behaved like an experienced officer" and that in Poor "center[ed] a brave and gallant soldier." One secondary source notes that "(o)f the thousands of American soldiers at Bunker Hill no other was given such recognition."

Salem Poor fought on with the Continental Army to the end of the American Revolution. He re-enlisted for a three-year term with Colonel Edward Wigglesworth's 13th Massachusetts Regiment, starting in mid-1777. This brought him to Monmouth, New Jersey and Saratoga, New York. He also served at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and White Plains, New York. He returned home in 1780, free and with veteran status.

On the home front in Andover, he married four times: in 1771 to freed woman Nancy Parker, with whom he had a son in 1774; in 1780 to Mary Twing, no longer enslaved; 1787 to Sarah Stevens, White and therefore free; 1801 to Hannah Ayliffe, a Black woman of unknown status. 1793 city directories listed Salem Poor as a resident of the Boston Almshouse. He was jailed briefly in 1799 for "breach of peace."

In 1802, at age fifty-five, Salem Poor died and was buried anonymously at Boston's Copp's Hill Burying Ground. What he went through after his years of enlistment and battles, we can only imagine. Here are some solid facts: he was a hero of Bunker Hill, recognized by all regimental leaders, and was one of at least 5,000 African Americans who served on the side of the Colonists throughout the Revolutionary War.

Footnotes:

1. Euell A. Nielsen, "Salem Poor (1747-1802)," Black Past, January 21, 2007, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/poor-salem-1747-1780/. There has been discussion over both Salem Poor's birth year and his death year. Different dates have been used by David Owen ("The two free Salems of Bunker Hill in the Revolutionary War, two of 100 black warriors at Bunker Hill," recoveryonline, July 3, 2016) and Irene Sege ("Freed slave's story uncovered by owner's descendant," The Boston Globe, February 21, 2007). In 2012, J.L. Bell admitted that he didn't know what year Salem Poor was born and simply used question marks (George Washington's Headquarters and Home - Cambridge, Massachusetts, Longfellow House -Washington Headquarters National Historic Site Historic Resources Study, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service Northeast Region History Program, 29 February 2012). By 2018, Bell was convinced of Poor's 1747-1802 lifespan ("Peter Salem? Salem Poor? Who Killed Major Pitcairn?," Journal of the American Revolution, June 18, 2018, https://allthingsliberty.com/2018/06/peter-salem-salem-poor-who-killed-major-john-pitcairn/).

2. The 1754 census recorded a total of 41 enslaved adult Andoverians. The 1754 Andover census numbers are comparable with those in Ipswich and Salem, both in Essex County. Other towns are a good deal lower; some at a 15-30 rate, others at a 5-14 level. Compare the Essex County numbers with: Boston (Suffolk Cty), total 989 (double males to females); Cambridge (Middlesex Cty) total 56; Concord (Middlesex Cty) total 15; Lexington (Middlesex Cty) total 24; Lincoln (Middlesex Cty) total 23; Medford (Middlesex Cty) total 27. "1754 Massachusetts Slave Census," Documenting a Slave's Transition from Slavery to Freedom, Primary Research: Local History, Closer to Home, https://primaryresearch.org/slave-census-all/ (accessed 05/05/2021).

3. This "legend" is recited, almost word-for-word, by many online pieces. It is important to ask ourselves: How did Salem Poor, by the age of 22, accrue the immense amount of savings that he used to purchase his freedom? Who played a role in funding this? The most likely explanation is that Salem Poor was able to earn funds from work on top of his duties in John and Sarah Poor's household or that they paid him wages. Bill Dalton, "Salem Poor's heroism and disappointing life," The Andover Townsman, Feb. 7, 2013, https://www.andovertownsman.com/community/dalton-column-salem-poors-heroism-and-disappointing-life/article_9bbefaf8-7219-53ef-b11a-fa1232573e7a.html. See also: Owen, "The two free Salems;" Sege, "Freed Slave's Story;" Nielsen, "Salem Poor (1747-1802);" Kathy Weiser-Alexander, "Salem Poor - From Slave to Hero," Legends of America, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/salem-poor/ (accessed 05/09/2021). For more information about the huge and influential Poor family in Andover, see: Sarah Loring Bailey, Historical sketches of Andover, (comprising the present towns of North Andover and Andover) (Boston: Houghton, 1888), https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch00bail/page/n7/mode/2up.

4. For perhaps the oldest investigation into which narratives about this battle were true and which not-so-true, see: Samuel Swett, History of Bunker Hill Battle. with a Plan ... : With Notes, and Likenesses of the Principal Officers (Boston: Munroe and Francis, 1826). For a purely military-style useful summary, see: John R. Elting, The Battle of Bunker's Hill (Monmouth Beach, N. J.: Philip Freneau Press, 1975).

5. Nielsen, "Salem Poor (1747-1802)." For more on the surprising amount of militia men of color who participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill, see: George Quintal, Patriots of Color: "A Peculiar Beauty and Merit": African Americans and Native Americans at Battle Road and Bunker Hill, Report for the National Park Service, February 2002. For carefully researched context for Quintal's findings, see John Hannigan, Scholar in the Park Papers, Minute Man NHP, 2014. Both of these can be found online here: https://www.nps.gov/mima/patriotsofcolor.htm.

6. Owen, "The two free Salems."

7. Dalton, "Salem Poor's heroism."

8. Or did he? Don Hagist's 2017 blogpost employs British source material not used by American historians that states very clearly that Abercrombie was brought alive back to Boston and spoke with fellow officers about "friendly fire." Abercrombie was wounded, carried off the battlefield, and was able to write reports two days later. Officers who visited and spoke with him noted that the fatal - though not the only - shot came from behind. Don N. Hagist, "James Abercrombie, much Lamented Victim of Friendly Fire at Bunker Hill," All Things Liberty, Journal of the American Revolution, June 14 2017, https://allthingsliberty.com/2017/06/james-abercrombie-much-lamented-victim-friendly-fire-bunker-hill/ (accessed 05/02/2021).

9. New England forces sent around 2,400 men into battle, of whom 115 were killed and 305 wounded. British troops numbered over 3,000 on land, of whom 207 soldiers were killed and 766 wounded, not to mention the horrifying fact that 19 officers were killed and 62 wounded ("Battle of Bunker Hill", Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bunker_Hill, accessed 05/09/2021).

10. Bell, George Washington's Headquarters and Home, pp. 298-300.

11. Owen, "The two free Salems."

12. Owen, "The two free Salems;" "Salem Poor," Patriots of Color at Valley Forge, Valley Forge National Historical Park Pennsylvania, https://www.nps.gov/vafo/learn/historyculture/salem-poor.htm," Nielsen, "Salem Poor (1747-1802)".

13. Nancy Parker had both African American and Native American backgrounds. Mary Twing and Hannah Ayliffe were African American. Sarah Stevens' background has already been categorized. It is important to note that Salem Poor married these four women when they were free - this seems to have been important to him. Weiser-Alexander, "Salem Poor;" Owen, "The two free Salems;" Sege, "Freed slave's story;" Dalton, "Salem Poor's heroism;" Nielsen, "Salem Poor (1747-1802);" Weiser-Alexander, "Salem Poor;" "Salem Poor," Patriots of Color at Valley Forge.

14. Nielsen, "Salem Poor (1747-1802)."

15. "Salem Poor," Patriots of Color at Valley Forge; Nielsen, "Salem Poor (1747-1802)."

16. Many more African Americans chose to enlist in the British Regular Army. Dalton, "Salem Poor's heroism." For the African Americans who chose to be on the British side, see for example: Alan Gilbert, Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence (University of Chicago Press, 2012).

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Salem Poor has remained one of the very few fabled African American heroes of the Revolutionary War since 1775, due to his strength and stability at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Officers present at the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775) submitted a petition to General George Washington that described his outstanding abilities in battle.

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The Oneida are one of the Six Nations Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), and the only one that openly declared its support for the American Revolution. In describing the group's support of the revolution, George Washington explained that, "The Oneidas have manifested the strongest Attachment to us throughout this Dispute." ¹ The Oneida provided American forces with troops and spies throughout the Revolution, beginning at the Battle of Oriskany in New York's Mohawk Valley August 1777.

² The sympathy Kirkland evoked turned into outright support when the British told the Oneida that General Barry St. Leger would march a combined force of British and American loyalist soldiers through the Oneida lands to attack Fort Schuyler, where he hoped to join forces with General John Burgoyne. The Oneida did not believe themselves to be subservient to either the British or their Mohawk allies, and so the Oneida saw St. Leger's action as an offence they were honor-bound to oppose. ³

On August 2, 1777, the Oneida rode out to warn the local patriots at Fort Schuyler and in the New York militia of the impending British attack. ⁴ Four days later, the Oneida fought alongside the militia to defend Fort Schuyler. Commanded by General Nicholas Herkimer, the New York troops went into battle and were ambushed by St. Leger and the Mohawk. ⁵ Eventually, however, the Oneida and the New York militia turned back the British after the Mohawk fled, thus preventing St. Leger from meeting Burgoyne as planned. The achievement helped set the stage for a decisive patriot victory at Saratoga in October.

The Battle of Oriskany, named after the nearby river, was one of the bloodiest battles in the Revolution and the only battle where Native Americans fought each other on a large scale. ⁶ Despite the British retreat, the victors sustained heavy losses. The New Yorkers lost almost their entire local militia and the nearby Oneida village was pillaged by the retreating Iroquois. ⁷ Equally important, this battle determined the sides the different Iroquois nations would take in the war and signified the end of the Iroquois alliance.

Valley Forge. When they arrived, Oneida leaders dined with Washington, who gave each leader a belt in gratitude for their help. ⁸ In addition to troops, the Oneida brought much-needed food and supplies. Most notable is the example of Polly Cooper, who gave white corn to the starving troops and taught them how to prepare the grain to make it edible. Polly Cooper remained at Valley Forge that winter, serving as Washington's cook. ⁹ Despite the great services they performed, the Oneida refused payment for what they had done. To show her gratitude, Oneida oral tradition holds that Martha Washington presented Polly Cooper with a shawl and bonnet. ¹⁰

General Washington also deployed the Oneida as scouts, soldiers, and spies. Oneida scouts patrolled the area around Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78. In May 1778, during the Battle of Barren Hill, the Oneida scouts stayed behind so that General Lafayette and his troops could escape, after which they assisted other American officers. ¹¹ Oneida men also fought alongside American patriot forces in many battles. Ten Oneida soldiers attained officers' commissions in the Continental Army, and one rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. ¹² Some Oneida acted as spies, intercepting British communications and gathering information on troop movements and strategies, including Deacon Thomas, who hid in the rafters of the council house in a Mohawk village until his assassination in 1779. ¹³

After the war, Congress thanked the Oneida for their help and granted them war reparations. While the U.S. government punished Native American tribes that sided with the British, the Oneida were left in relative peace. Despite their professed friendship for the Oneida, however, state and federal governments prevented the group from buying back most of their ancestral lands. ¹⁴ The situation worsened when the State of New York claimed land that, according to a treaty, belonged to the Oneida. Congress ruled that the land was to be returned to the Oneida and that New York should pay reparations. However, when New York then attempted to force the Oneida to pay taxes on their land, Congress issued a mixed verdict, exempting the Oneida from state taxes but also ruling that they did not have sovereignty in the lands that they bought. ¹⁵

Alejandra Smith
George Mason University

Notes:
1. " From George Washington to the Commissioners of Indian Affairs, 13 March 1778," Founders Online, National Archives. Source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 14, 1 March 1778?-?30 April 1778, ed. David R. Hoth (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2004), 167-8.

2. Ibid.

3. James Kirby Martin, "Forgotten Heroes of the Revolution: Han Yerry and Tyona Doxtader of the Oneida Indian Nation," in Alfred F. Young, Gary Nash, and Ray Raphael, eds., Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), 203; Joseph Glatthaar and James Martin, Forgotten Allies: Oneida Indians and the American Revolution (New York: Hill and Wang, 2006), 156.

4. Martin, "Forgotten Heroes," 205.

5. Paul A. Boehlert, The Battle of Oriskany and General Nicholas Herkimer: Revolution in the Mohawk Valley (Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2013), 80.

6. Martin, "Forgotten Heroes," 205; Karim Tiro, The People of the Standing Stone: The Oneida Nation from the revolution through the Era of Removal (Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011), 48.

7. Glatthaar and Martin, Forgotten Allies, 177; Boehlert, Battle of Oriskany, 101.

8. Glatthaar and Martin, Forgotten Allies, 285.

9. William Sawyer, " The Oneida Nation in the American Revolution," Fort Stanwix, National Park Service.

10. William Rockwell et. al., " The Polly Cooper Shawl," Oneida Indian Nation.

11. Martin, "Forgotten Heroes,", 208; David Norton, Rebellious Younger Brother: Oneida Leadership and Diplomacy, 1750-1800 (DeKalb, Ill,.: Northern Illinois University Press, 2009), 99.

12. Tiro, People of the Standing Stone, 51; Barbara Graymont, " ATIATOHARONGWEN," in Dictionary of Canadian Biograph y, vol. 5, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003.

13. Tiro, 51.

14. Norton, 111.

15. Glatthaar and Martin, 320-3.

Bibliography:
Boehlert, Paul A. The Battle of Oriskany and General Nicholas Herkimer: Revolution in the Mohawk Valley. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2013.

Glatthaar, Joseph T. and James K. Martin. Forgotten Allies: Oneida Indians and the American Revolution. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.

Martin, James Kirby, "Forgotten Heroes of the Revolution: Han Yerry and Tyona Doxtader of the Oneida Indian Nation. In Alfred F. Young, Gary Nash, and Ray Raphael, eds., Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. Pages 199-214.

Norton, David. Rebellious Younger Brother: Oneida Leadership and Diplomacy, 1750-1800. DeKalb, Il: Northern Illinois University Press, 2009.

Tiro, Karim. The People of the Standing Stone: The Oneida Nation from the Revolution through the Era of Removal. Amherst and Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011.

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The Oneida are one of the Six Nations Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), and the only one that openly declared its support for the American Revolution. In describing the group's support of the revolution, George Washington explained that, "The Oneidas have manifested the strongest Attachment to us throughout this Dispute."

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Washington also bought William's younger brother Frank, who went on to serve as a waiter and butler in the household. Both William and Frank were described as "mulatto," or mixed race, meaning they were probably the sons of an enslaved mother and a white father. The name "Billy Lee" appears frequently in popular histories and is well known, Washington only referred to his valet by that diminutive until about 1771. George Washington purchased him from Mary Lee, a wealthy Virginia widow, for £61.15s.1

For two decades, William Lee accompanied Washington nearly everywhere. As manservant, or valet, Lee assisted his master with myriad tasks, from delivering messages to laying out clothes to tying a silk ribbon around his hair. An excellent horseman who was described as muscular and athletic, Lee also rode in Washington's beloved fox hunts.

William Lee served with Washington throughout the Revolutionary War. He was responsible for organizing the general's personal affairs, including As the attendant to a prominent figure, Lee became a minor celebrity. Postwar his voluminous papers, and holding his spyglass. visitors to Mount Vernon occasionally sought out the "famed body-servant of the commander-in-chief.

Spending more than seven years in close proximity during the intensity of war seems to have made Washington and Lee's relationship especially close. The former's views on slavery shifted significantly during the war, and he emerged with a newfound abhorrence of slavery and a commitment to neither buy nor sell enslaved people and to avoid separating enslaved families. Many factors likely influenced Washington's evolution, but his close relationship with William Lee may have helped him understand more fully the humanity of those he enslaved.

During the Revolution, Lee married a free black woman named Margaret Thomas from Philadelphia. Thomas had worked for Washington's household as a seamstress and washerwoman. After the war, Lee asked his owner to bring Thomas to Mount Vernon. Although Washington grumbled that he "never wished to see her more," he acquiesced, noting that he could not refuse his valet's request "(if it can be complied with on reasonable terms) as he has lived with me so long and followed my fortunes with fidelity." There is no evidence, however, that Margaret Thomas ever lived at Mount Vernon. Washington's correspondence notes that she had been in "ill health," so she may have passed away before or shortly after arrival.

In the mid-1780s, William Lee endured several accidents that severely damaged both of his knees. Despite his disability, he insisted on traveling to New York to join Washington in the executive household. When his condition worsened on the journey, he was forced to stop in Philadelphia, where doctors fitted him with a steel brace. Washington's affection for Lee is clear in correspondence between his secretary and agent in Philadelphia as they conferred on Lee's situation. Washington's secretary wrote, "if he is still anxious to come on here the President would gratify him altho' he will be troublesome. He has been an old & faithful Servt. This is enough for the Presidt to gratify him in every reasonable wish."

Though a determined Lee finally reached New York two months later, it soon became clear that he was no longer physically able to act as Washington's valet. He was sent back to Mount Vernon and became the estate's shoemaker, working in the small cobbler shop behind the greenhouse. It is unclear, and perhaps impossible to know, whether Lee's devotion to Washington stemmed from genuine affection or the desire to maintain a position of relative privilege within the enslaved community.

Washington certainly believed the former. When the retired president He is believed to be buried in died, William Lee was the only enslaved person freed immediately in his the enslaved cemetery at Mount Vernon. will. Washington provided Lee with an annual allowance of $30 for the rest of his life, noting, "this I give him as a testimony of my sense of his attachment to me, and for his faithful services during the Revolutionary War." Lee remained on the estate until his own death in 1810.

Jessie MacLeod
Associate Curator
George Washington's Mount Vernon
Notes:
If not specifically cited, biographical and genealogical information about enslaved people has been drawn from Washington's 1786 and 1799 slave lists: GW, Diary, Feb. 18, 1786, and "Washington's Slave List," 1799, Founders Online, National Archives, [Original source: The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, ed. Theodore J. Crackel (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008)]; the MV slavery database, which compiles references to the estate's enslaved people; and the files of Mary V. Thompson, Mount Vernon's research historian.

1. Cash Accounts, May 3, 1768, The George Washington Financial Papers Project. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, ed. Theodore J. Crackel (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008), n2.] Though the name "Billy Lee" appears frequently in popular histories and is well known, George Washington only referred to his valet by that diminutive until about 1771. After that date, Washington almost exclusively called him "Will" or "William." Compare Memorandum, List of Tithables, ca. June 14, 1771, Founders Online, National Archives. [Original source: Papers of George Washington], which lists "Billy" as a house servant, with Memorandum, List of Tithables, ca. June 10, 1772, Founders Online, National Archives. [Original source: Papers of George Washington] (and subsequent lists), which record "Will." There is also evidence that William Lee himself preferred that name. In his will, Washington noted, "And to my Mulatto man William (calling himself William Lee) I give immediate freedom"; George Washington, Last Will and Testament, July 9, 1799, Founders Online, National Archives. [Original source: Papers of George Washington].

2. George Washington Parke Custis and Mary Custis Lee, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington (Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, 1861), 224, 387.

3. Custis and Lee, Recollections, 450-51.

4. To Clement Biddle, July 28, 1784, Founders Online, National Archives. [Original source: Papers of George Washington.]

5. Diary, Apr. 22, 1785; Mar. 1, 1788, Founders Online, National Archives. [Original source: Papers of George Washington.]

6. Editorial note on Clement Biddle to George Washington, Apr. 22, 1789 includes Tobias Lear to Clement Biddle, May 3, 1789, Founders Online, National Archives. [Original source: Papers of George Washington.]

7. In 1799 Washington identified "Will" as the shoemaker and described him as "lame"; "Washington's Slave List," 1799, Founders Online, National Archives. [Original source: Papers of George Washington.]

8. Last Will and Testament, July 9, 1799, Founders Online, National Archives. [Original source: Papers of George Washington.]

9. Eugene E. Prussing, The Estate of George Washington, Deceased (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1927), 159.

10. "Visit to Mount Vernon," Western Literary Messenger 6, no. 13 (May 2, 1846): 201.

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William Lee spent two decades as George Washington's enslaved valet accompanied him nearly everywhere.

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Colonel Tye, the most feared and respected guerrilla commander of the Revolution, was one of the many enslaved Africans who escaped and fought for the British.

Known in his youth as Titus, he was one of four young men owned by John Corlies of Shrewsbury, in the eastern part of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Shrewsbury Quakers, under increasing pressure from their Philadelphia-influenced counterparts to the west, finally began to end slavery among themselves in the 1760s. Corlies did not follow the local practice of educating his slaves or of freeing them on their 21st birthdays, and by 1775, he was one of the few remaining Quaker slaveholders in Monmouth County.

In November 1775, the day after Dunmore's Proclamation was issued, 22-year old Titus fled from his cruel, quick-tempered master, joining the flood of Monmouth County blacks who sought refuge with the British as soldiers, sailors and workers. Titus changed his name, gaining notoriety three years later as Captain Tye, the pride of Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment.

While not formally commissioning black officers, the British army often bestowed titles out of respect, and Tye quickly earned their respect. In his first known military incursion, the June, 1778 Battle of Monmouth (in which not a single black from the county fought for the patriots), Tye captured a captain in the Monmouth militia.

In July, 1779, Tye's band launched a raid on Shrewsbury, and carried away clothing, furniture, horses, cattle, and two of the town's inhabitants. With his "motley crew" of blacks and white refugees known as "cow-boys," Tye continued to attack and plunder patriot homes, using his knowledge of Monmouth County's swamps, rivers and inlets to strike suddenly and disappear quickly. These raids, often aimed at former masters and their friends, were a combination of banditry, reprisal, and commission; Tye and his men were well-paid by the British, sometimes earning five gold guineas.

During the harsh winter of 1779, Tye was among an elite group of twenty-four black Loyalists, known as the Black Brigade, who joined with the Queen's Rangers, a British guerrilla unit, to protect New York City and to conduct raids for food and fuel.

By 1780, Colonel Tye had become an important military force. Within one week in June, he led three actions in Monmouth County. On June 9, Tye and his men murdered Joseph Murray, hated by the Loyalists for his summary execution of captured Tories under a local vigilante law. On June 12, while the British attacked Washington's dwindling troops, Tye and his band launched a daring attack on the home of Barnes Smock, capturing the militia leader and twelve of his men, destroying their cannon, depriving Washington of needed reinforcements, and striking fear into the hearts of local patriots.

In response, Governor Livingston, who had tried two years before to abolish slavery in New Jersey, invoked martial law -- a measure which proved totally ineffective -- even as large numbers of blacks, heartened by news of Tye's feats, fled to British-held New York.

In a series of raids throughout the summer, Tye continued to debilitate and demoralize the patriot forces. In a single day, he and his band captured eight militiamen (including the second in command), plundered their homes, and took them to imprisonment in New York, virtually undetected and without suffering a single casualty.

In September, 1780 Tye led a surprise attack on the home of Captain Josiah Huddy, whom Loyalists had tried to capture for years. Amazingly, Huddy and his friend Lucretia Emmons managed to hold off their attackers for two hours, until the Loyalists flushed them out by setting the house afire. During the battle, Tye was shot in the wrist, and days later, what was thought to be minor wound turned fatal when lockjaw set in.

After Tye's death, Colonel Stephen Blucke of the Black Pioneers replaced him as leader of the raiders, continuing their attacks well after the British defeat at Yorktown. Tye's reputation lived on, among his comrades as well as the Patriots, who argued that the war would have been won much sooner had Tye been enlisted on their side.

Image Credit: American Antiquarian Society

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Colonel Tye, the most feared and respected guerrilla commander of the Revolution, was one of the many enslaved Africans who escaped and fought for the British. Known in his youth as Titus, he was one of four young men owned by John Corlies of Shrewsbury, in the eastern part of Monmouth County, New Jersey.

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James Forten was a Black entrepreneur, veteran, and abolitionist who was born to free parents in 1766 in Philadelphia. When he was a boy, he served on several privateer ships during the Revolutionary War. Forten sought public recognition of his political rights as a citizen and hoped military service would help gain him that recognition.

Forten was captured by the British and was imprisoned for several months on a British ship. He was freed in 1782 and returned to Philadelphia, where he would go on to become a wealthy sailmaker and a leader in the city's abolition movement. He was a founding member of the Free African Society, established in 1787 under the leadership of Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. His wife, Charlotte Vandine Forten, and his daughters, Harriet, Sarah, and Margaretta prominent supporters of abolition and Black suffrage. Together they founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, the first integrated women's abolitionist organization. Sarah is featured in the Museum's virtual exhibit, When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story, 1776-1807.

﻿At this digital discovery cart, view replica objects from Forten's time as a teenager at sea to learn more about his life.

Sailor's Jacket and Hat

This example of a jacket and a hat shows what a sailor like Forten may have worn during the Revolutionary era.

Belaying Rope and Pin

This example of a late 1700s belaying rope and pin, which is used to rig a sailing vessel, was reproduced by our friends at Independence Seaport Museum.

Bowl and Spoon

The bowl and spoon above were reproduced based off bowls and spoons recovered from the wreck of the 1779 American privateer Defence.

Sketchbook and Common Sense

Did You Know: The Museum has in its collection a June 1776 copy of Thomas Paine's Common Sense that was printed in London by printer John Almon and bundled with Loyalist James Chalmers' rebuke, Plain Truth.

BONUS - James Forten House Historical Marker

This historical marker stands at the site of James Forten's home in what's now known as the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia on Lombard Street between 3rd Street and 4th Street, just a few short blocks from the Museum.

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James Forten was a Black entrepreneur, veteran, and abolitionist who was born to free parents in 1766 in Philadelphia. When he was a boy, he served on several privateer ships during the Revolutionary War. Forten sought public recognition of his political rights as a citizen and hoped military service would help gain him that recognition.

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Born into slavery around 1760, James Armistead lived most of his life on a plantation in New Kent, Virginia. During the American Revolution, however, James received permission from his master, William Armistead, to enlist in the Marquis de Lafayette's French Allied units. Here, the army dispatched Armistead as a spy, playing the role of a runaway slave to gain access to General Cornwallis's headquarters. Because Armistead was a native Virginian with extensive knowledge of the terrain, the British received him without suspicion. As a result, Armistead accomplished what few spies could: direct access to the center of the British War Department.

After successfully infiltrating British intelligence, Armistead floated freely between the British and American camps. As a double agent, he relayed critical information to Lafayette and misleading intel to the enemy. Oblivious to his true intentions, the British assigned Armistead to work under the notorious turncoat, Benedict Arnold. By helping Arnold maneuver his troops through Virginia, Armistead gained significant insight into the Redcoats' movements.

Several of Armistead's finest acts occurred in 1781, during a critical moment in the Revolution-the Battle of Yorktown. The spy informed Lafayette and Washington about approaching British reinforcements, which allowed the generals to devise a blockade impeding enemy advancements. This success resulted in the final major victory for the colonists when Lord Cornwallis surrendered on October 17, 1781.

Though Americans celebrated freedom throughout the United States at the end of the war, James Armistead returned to life as a slave. His status as a spy meant that he did not benefit from the Act of 1783, which emancipated any slave-soldiers that fought for the Revolution.

As a result, Armistead began the process of petitioning Congress to fight for his freedom. After several years without success, Armistead received help from an old comrade in arms, the Marquis de Lafayette. Upon learning that Armistead remained enslaved, Lafayette wrote a letter to Congress on his behalf. Armistead received his manumission in 1787.

Living off his annual pension fee, Armistead moved to his own 40-acre farm in Virginia, where he married, raised a family, and lived out the rest of his life as a freeman. Armistead added Lafayette to his name as a token of gratitude and a testament to the bond the former slave and French general shared.

The two crossed paths again during Lafayette's grand tour of the United States in 1824, where the general picked James out of a crowd and cordially embraced him. James Armistead Lafayette died in 1832.

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Born into slavery around 1760, James Armistead lived most of his life on a plantation in New Kent, Virginia. During the American Revolution, however, James...

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Herschel Levit painted the mural, "Crispus Attucks," at the Recorder of Deeds building, DC, in 1943.
Library of Congress

Crispus Attucks, a sailor of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry, died in Boston on March 5, 1770 after British soldiers fired two musket balls into his chest. ¹ His death and that of four other men at the hands of the 29 th Regiment became known as the Boston Massacre. Death instantly transformed Attucks from an anonymous sailor into a martyr for a burgeoning revolutionary cause.

The life of Crispus Attucks is far less documented than his death. Early coverage and investigations into the details of the Massacre refer to Attucks as Michael Johnson, ² a name he may have used as an intentional alias. After uncovering his actual name, newspapers published a few details about his life, notably his profession, a sailor; his birth in Framingham, Massachusetts; his current residence of New Providence in the Bahamas; and his ship's destination of North Carolina. ³ His last name, "Attucks," is of Indigenous origin, deriving from the Natick word for "deer." ⁴ Witness testimony during the Massacre trial interchangeably used "mulatto" or "Indian" to describe Attucks, indicating his mixed African and Indigenous birth. ⁵ His first name reflects the trend in the colonial era of enslavers forcing an Ancient Roman name onto their enslaved people. ⁶ Attucks shares the name "Crispus" with the son of Emperor Constantine. ⁷ He also appears in a 1750 advertisement in the Boston Gazette. William Brown of Framingham placed an advertisement to call for the return of a twenty-seven year old escaped enslaved man named "Crispas," described as a six foot two inch "mulatto." ⁸ Contemporary sources at the time of his death do not identify Attucks as enslaved or formerly enslaved. How and when he gained his freedom is unknown, but it is possible that Attucks used the name Michael Johnson to protect himself from a return to slavery.

On March 5, 1770, witnesses placed Attucks at the head of a group of sailors brandishing clubs and marching toward King Street. A crowd formed around a small group of British soldiers, hurling snowballs, ice balls, and insults at the men. Observers noted Attucks leaned his tall frame on his cordwood club. ⁹ Amid the chaos, Private Montgomery and the rest of the soldiers fired into the crowd. Two musket balls ripped through Attucks chest, killing him instantly. ¹⁰ In the following days, the people of Boston held a funeral procession for the victims of the massacre. Because Attucks and fellow victim and sailor James Caldwell had no family or home in Boston, their bodies lay in state at Faneuil Hall. ¹¹

Defending the soldiers in the subsequent trial, John Adams painted Attucks and the rest of those killed as aggressors to justify the killing. He played to the jury's prejudices about race and class, describing those in the crowd as "a motley rabble of saucy boys, Negroes, and mulattos, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tars." ¹² In other words, those in the crowd were young, lower-class, Black, Irish, or sailors from out of town. Adams' argument led to an acquittal for the Captain and all but two of the soldiers.

Town officials buried the victims of the Massacre in the Granary Burying Ground. Today, they share a headstone facing toward Tremont Street.

In the 19 th century, abolitionists in Boston, led by William Cooper Nell, held up the death of Attucks as the first martyr of the American Revolution. Nell's seminal work, The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, fought the erasure of Black people from the story of the American Revolution. Nell led this work with the story of Crispus Attucks, highlighting his death as the first in the cause for liberty. ¹³ Though Black Bostonians have commemorated the anniversary of Attucks' death since at least the 1850s, ¹⁴ it took until the early twentieth century when activists, including William Monroe Trotter, pushed the city of Boston to officially recognize March 5 as Crispus Attucks Day, ¹⁵ a tradition which continues to the present day.

Learn More...
Revolutionary Spaces - Reflecting Attucks Virtual Exhibit
Footnotes

1. "Boston March 12," Pennsylvania Gazette, March 22, 1770, 2.

2. "Mortuary Notice," The Boston News-Letter, March 15, 1770.

3. "Boston March 12" Pennsylvania Gazette, March 22, 1770, 2.

4. James Hammond Trumbull, "Natick Dictionary" (United States: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1903), 243.

5. William Weems, John Adams, Frederic Kidder, History of the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770: Consisting of the Narrative of the Town, the Trial of the Soldiers: and a Historical Introduction, Containing Unpublished Documents of John Adams, and Explanatory Notes (United States: J. Munsell, 1870), 134.

6. Classicisms in the Black Atlantic (United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2020), 14.

7. David Woods, "On the Death of the Empress Fausta," in Greece and Rome 45 (1) (Cambridge University Press, 1998), 70-86, doi:10.1093/gr/45.1.70.

8. "Advertisement," Boston Gazette, October 2, 1750, 2.

9. Weems, Adams, Kidder, History of the Boston Massacre, 6.

10. "To the Printers," Boston Gazette, December 31, 1770.

11. Boston Post-Boy, March 12, 1770, 3.

12. Weems, Adams, Kidder, History of the Boston Massacre, 255.

13. William Cooper Nell, Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution: With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons: to which is Added a Brief Survey of the Condition and Prospects of Colored Americans (United States: R.F. Wallcut, 1855), 14.

14. "The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770," The Liberator, March 12, 1858, 1.

15. "Pay Tribute to Attucks on Anniversary of Massacre," The Boston Globe, March 5, 1928, 19.

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Crispus Attucks (U.S. National Park Service)

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Crispus Attucks, a sailor of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry, died in Boston on March 5, 1770 after British soldiers fired two musket balls into his chest. 1 His death and that of four other men at the hands of the 29 th Regiment became known as the Boston Massacre.

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Although she was an enslaved person, Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. Educated and enslaved in the household of prominent Boston commercialist John Wheatley, lionized in New England and England, with presses in both places publishing her poems, and paraded before the new republic's political leadership and the old empire's aristocracy, Wheatley was the abolitionists' illustrative testimony that blacks could be both artistic and intellectual. Her name was a household word among literate colonists and her achievements a catalyst for the fledgling antislavery movement.

Wheatley was seized from Senegal/Gambia, West Africa, when she was about seven years old. She was transported to the Boston docks with a shipment of "refugee" slaves, who because of age or physical frailty were unsuited for rigorous labor in the West Indian and Southern colonies, the first ports of call after the Atlantic crossing. In the month of August 1761, "in want of a domestic," Susanna Wheatley, wife of prominent Boston tailor John Wheatley, purchased "a slender, frail female child ... for a trifle" because the captain of the slave ship believed that the waif was terminally ill, and he wanted to gain at least a small profit before she died. A Wheatley relative later reported that the family surmised the girl-who was "of slender frame and evidently suffering from a change of climate," nearly naked, with "no other covering than a quantity of dirty carpet about her"-to be "about seven years old ... from the circumstances of shedding her front teeth."

After discovering the girl's precociousness, the Wheatleys, including their son Nathaniel and their daughter Mary, did not entirely excuse Wheatley from her domestic duties but taught her to read and write. Soon she was immersed in the Bible, astronomy, geography, history, British literature (particularly John Milton and Alexander Pope), and the Greek and Latin classics of Virgil, Ovid, Terence, and Homer. In "To the University of Cambridge in New England" (probably the first poem she wrote but not published until 1773), Wheatley indicated that despite this exposure, rich and unusual for an American slave, her spirit yearned for the intellectual challenge of a more academic atmosphere.

Although scholars had generally believed that An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of that Celebrated Divine, and Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned George Whitefield ... (1770) was Wheatley's first published poem, Carl Bridenbaugh revealed in 1969 that 13-year-old Wheatley-after hearing a miraculous saga of survival at sea-wrote "On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin," a poem which was published on 21 December 1767 in the Newport, Rhode Island, Mercury. But it was the Whitefield elegy that brought Wheatley national renown. Published as a broadside and a pamphlet in Boston, Newport, and Philadelphia, the poem was published with Ebenezer Pemberton's funeral sermon for Whitefield in London in 1771, bringing her international acclaim.

By the time she was 18, Wheatley had gathered a collection of 28 poems for which she, with the help of Mrs. Wheatley, ran advertisements for subscribers in Boston newspapers in February 1772. When the colonists were apparently unwilling to support literature by an African, she and the Wheatleys turned in frustration to London for a publisher. Wheatley had forwarded the Whitefield poem to Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, to whom Whitefield had been chaplain. A wealthy supporter of evangelical and abolitionist causes, the countess instructed bookseller Archibald Bell to begin correspondence with Wheatley in preparation for the book.

Wheatley, suffering from a chronic asthma condition and accompanied by Nathaniel, left for London on May 8, 1771. The now-celebrated poetess was welcomed by several dignitaries: abolitionists' patron the Earl of Dartmouth, poet and activist Baron George Lyttleton, Sir Brook Watson (soon to be the Lord Mayor of London), philanthropist John Thorton, and Benjamin Franklin. While Wheatley was recrossing the Atlantic to reach Mrs. Wheatley, who, at the summer's end, had become seriously ill, Bell was circulating the first edition of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), the first volume of poetry by an African American published in modern times.

Poems on Various Subjects revealed that Wheatley's favorite poetic form was the couplet, both iambic pentameter and heroic. More than one-third of her canon is composed of elegies, poems on the deaths of noted persons, friends, or even strangers whose loved ones employed the poet. The poems that best demonstrate her abilities and are most often questioned by detractors are those that employ classical themes as well as techniques. In her epyllion "Niobe in Distress for Her Children Slain by Apollo, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book VI, and from a view of the Painting of Mr. Richard Wilson," she not only translates Ovid but adds her own beautiful lines to extend the dramatic imagery. In "To Maecenas" she transforms Horace's ode into a celebration of Christ.

In addition to classical and neoclassical techniques, Wheatley applied biblical symbolism to evangelize and to comment on slavery. For instance, " On Being Brought from Africa to America," the best-known Wheatley poem, chides the Great Awakening audience to remember that Africans must be included in the Christian stream: "Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, /May be refin'd and join th' angelic train." The remainder of Wheatley's themes can be classified as celebrations of America. She was the first to applaud this nation as glorious "Columbia" and that in a letter to no less than the first president of the United States, George Washington, with whom she had corresponded and whom she was later privileged to meet. Her love of virgin America as well as her religious fervor is further suggested by the names of those colonial leaders who signed the attestation that appeared in some copies of Poems on Various Subjects to authenticate and support her work: Thomas Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts; John Hancock; Andrew Oliver, lieutenant governor; James Bowdoin; and Reverend Mather Byles. Another fervent Wheatley supporter was Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Wheatley was manumitted some three months before Mrs. Wheatley died on March 3, 1774. Although many British editorials castigated the Wheatleys for keeping Wheatley in slavery while presenting her to London as the African genius, the family had provided an ambiguous haven for the poet. Wheatley was kept in a servant's place-a respectable arm's length from the Wheatleys' genteel circles-but she had experienced neither slavery's treacherous demands nor the harsh economic exclusions pervasive in a free-black existence. With the death of her benefactor, Wheatley slipped toward this tenuous life. Mary Wheatley and her father died in 1778; Nathaniel, who had married and moved to England, died in 1783. Throughout the lean years of the war and the following depression, the assault of these racial realities was more than her sickly body or aesthetic soul could withstand.

On April 1, 1778, despite the skepticism and disapproval of some of her closest friends, Wheatley married John Peters, whom she had known for some five years, and took his name. A free black, Peters evidently aspired to entrepreneurial and professional greatness. He is purported in various historical records to have called himself Dr. Peters, to have practiced law (perhaps as a free-lance advocate for hapless blacks), kept a grocery in Court Street, exchanged trade as a baker and a barber, and applied for a liquor license for a bar. Described by Merle A. Richmond as "a man of very handsome person and manners," who "wore a wig, carried a cane, and quite acted out 'the gentleman,'" Peters was also called "a remarkable specimen of his race, being a fluent writer, a ready speaker." Peters's ambitions cast him as "shiftless," arrogant, and proud in the eyes of some reporters, but as a Black man in an era that valued only his brawn, Peters's business acumen was simply not salable. Like many others who scattered throughout the Northeast to avoid the fighting during the Revolutionary War, the Peterses moved temporarily from Boston to Wilmington, Massachusetts, shortly after their marriage.

Merle A. Richmond points out that economic conditions in the colonies during and after the war were harsh, particularly for free blacks, who were unprepared to compete with whites in a stringent job market. These societal factors, rather than any refusal to work on Peters's part, were perhaps most responsible for the newfound poverty that Wheatley Peters suffered in Wilmington and Boston, after they later returned there. Between 1779 and 1783, the couple may have had children (as many as three, though evidence of children is disputed), and Peters drifted further into penury, often leaving Wheatley Peters to fend for herself by working as a charwoman while he dodged creditors and tried to find employment.

During the first six weeks after their return to Boston, Wheatley Peters stayed with one of her nieces in a bombed-out mansion that was converted to a day school after the war. Peters then moved them into an apartment in a rundown section of Boston, where other Wheatley relatives soon found Wheatley Peters sick and destitute. As Margaretta Matilda Odell recalls, "She was herself suffering for want of attention, for many comforts, and that greatest of all comforts in sickness-cleanliness. She was reduced to a condition too loathsome to describe. ... In a filthy apartment, in an obscure part of the metropolis ... . The woman who had stood honored and respected in the presence of the wise and good ... was numbering the last hours of life in a state of the most abject misery, surrounded by all the emblems of a squalid poverty!"

Yet throughout these lean years, Wheatley Peters continued to write and publish her poems and to maintain, though on a much more limited scale, her international correspondence. She also felt that despite the poor economy, her American audience and certainly her evangelical friends would support a second volume of poetry. Between October and December 1779, with at least the partial motive of raising funds for her family, she ran six advertisements soliciting subscribers for "300 pages in Octavo," a volume "Dedicated to the Right Hon. Benjamin Franklin, Esq.: One of the Ambassadors of the United States at the Court of France," that would include 33 poems and 13 letters. As with Poems on Various Subjects, however, the American populace would not support one of its most noted poets. (The first American edition of this book was not published until two years after her death.) During the year of her death (1784), she was able to publish, under the name Phillis Peters, a masterful 64-line poem in a pamphlet entitled Liberty and Peace, which hailed America as "Columbia" victorious over "Britannia Law." Proud of her nation's intense struggle for freedom that, to her, bespoke an eternal spiritual greatness, Wheatley Peters ended the poem with a triumphant ring:

Britannia owns her Independent Reign,
Hibernia, Scotia, and the Realms of Spain;
And Great Germania's ample Coast admires
The generous Spirit that Columbia fires.
Auspicious Heaven shall fill with fav'ring Gales,
Where e'er Columbia spreads her swelling Sails:
To every Realm shall Peace her Charms display,
And Heavenly Freedom spread her gold Ray.

On January 2 of that same year, she published An Elegy, Sacred to the Memory of that Great Divine, The Reverend and Learned Dr. Samuel Cooper, just a few days after the death of the Brattle Street church's pastor. And, sadly, in September the "Poetical Essays" section of The Boston Magazine carried "To Mr. and Mrs.________, on the Death of their Infant Son," which probably was a lamentation for the death of one of her own children and which certainly foreshadowed her death three months later."

Phillis Wheatley Peters died, uncared for and alone. As Richmond concludes, with ample evidence, when she died on December 5, 1784, John Peters was incarcerated, "forced to relieve himself of debt by an imprisonment in the county jail." Their last surviving child died in time to be buried with his mother, and, as Odell recalled, "A grandniece of Phillis' benefactress, passing up Court Street, met the funeral of an adult and a child: a bystander informed her that they were bearing Phillis Wheatley to that silent mansion."

Recent scholarship shows that Wheatley Peters wrote perhaps 145 poems (most of which would have been published if the encouragers she begged for had come forth to support the second volume), but this artistic heritage is now lost, probably abandoned during Peters's quest for subsistence after her death. Of the numerous letters she wrote to national and international political and religious leaders, some two dozen notes and letters are extant. As an exhibition of African intelligence, exploitable by members of the enlightenment movement, by evangelical Christians, and by other abolitionists, she was perhaps recognized even more in England and Europe than in America. Early 20th-century critics of Black American literature were not very kind to Wheatley Peters because of her supposed lack of concern about slavery. She, however, did have a statement to make about the institution of slavery, and she made it to the most influential segment of 18th-century society-the institutional church. Two of the greatest influences on Phillis Wheatley Peter's thought and poetry were the Bible and 18th-century evangelical Christianity; but until fairly recently her critics did not consider her use of biblical allusion nor its symbolic application as a statement against slavery. She often spoke in explicit biblical language designed to move church members to decisive action. For instance, these bold lines in her poetic eulogy to General David Wooster castigate patriots who confess Christianity yet oppress her people:

But how presumptuous shall we hope to find
Divine acceptance with the Almighty mind
While yet o deed ungenerous they disgrace
And hold in bondage Afric: blameless race
Let virtue reign and then accord our prayers
Be victory ours and generous freedom theirs.

And in an outspoken letter to the Reverend Samson Occom, written after Wheatley Peters was free and published repeatedly in Boston newspapers in 1774, she equates American slaveholding to that of pagan Egypt in ancient times: "Otherwise, perhaps, the Israelites had been less solicitous for their Freedom from Egyptian Slavery: I don't say they would have been contented without it, by no Means, for in every human Breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance; and by the Leave of our modern Egyptians I will assert that the same Principle lives in us."

In the past decade, Wheatley scholars have uncovered poems, letters, and more facts about her life and her association with 18th-century Black abolitionists. They have also charted her notable use of classicism and have explicated the sociological intent of her biblical allusions. All this research and interpretation has proven Wheatley Peter's disdain for the institution of slavery and her use of art to undermine its practice. Before the end of this century the full aesthetic, political, and religious implications of her art and even more salient facts about her life and works will surely be known and celebrated by all who study the 18th century and by all who revere this woman, a most important poet in the American literary canon. -Original by Sondra A. O'Neale, Emory University

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Although she was an enslaved person, Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. Educated and enslaved in the household of prominent Boston commercialist John Wheatley, lionized in New England and England, with presses in both places publishing her poems,...

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Peter Salem and the Battle of Bunker Hill

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On June 17, 1775, one of the most important battles of the American Revolution, The Battle of Bunker Hill, took place and among the Continental Army was Peter Salem.

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Seymour Burr (1754/1762-1837) was an African-American slave in the Connecticut Colony in the North American British Colonies and United States. Owned by the brother of Colonel Aaron Burr, who was also named Seymour, he was known only as Seymour (sometimes spelled Seymore) until he escaped and used the surname Burr to enlist in the British Army in the early days of the American Revolution. The British promised the personal freedom of any African-American slave who enlisted or escaped to fight against the Continental Army, and Burr wanted more than anything to be free. However, he was quickly captured and forcibly returned to his owner.

His owner, fearing that Seymour would escape again, offered him his freedom at the end of the war if he paid over his Bounty Money after enlisting in the American Army; Seymour agreed to this bargain

There is conflicting information regarding his birth. Some citations list him as born in Connecticut, possibly of mixed-race parentage, others claim he was born in Guinea, Africa, captured at age seven, and was possibly of royal birth. A descriptive Feb 1782 document of enlisted men documents list his birthplace as "Guinea" with his age given as both 20 and 28, which places his birth in either 1754 or 1762.

Military service

It is alleged that he fought at Bunker Hill and Fort Catskill, and suffered through the long winter, at Valley Forge. However Massachusetts Archives show only that on the fifth of April 1781, Seymour enlisted in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, led by Colonel John Brooks and served until Feb 1782.

Freedom and Marriage

After his service he was given the freedom he wanted. Then in 1805 he married a widow, Mary (Will) Wilbore, daughter of Nuff Will and Sarah Moho (Mohho), a Native American woman of the Ponkapoag tribe, and settled in what is now Canton, Massachusetts. In marrying her, he inherited the 6 acres (24,000 m ²) of land owned by her previous husband, Jacob Wilbor. He also collected a government pension for his military service. The couple had two daughters: Polly (Burr) Croud and Sally (Sarah). Both of his daughters died in Cambridge, Mass. An 1892 History of Canton reported that a grandson of Seymour Burr named Lemuel Burr was a resident of Boston, Mass. The report is confirmed by two sources:
1842 Boston City Directory:

Burr, Lemuel, barber, 65 Court, house 3 Southac and a

Burr, Sarah, widow, house 16 Belknap

In 1861 report to the Massachusetts Governor reports:

Sally Burr age 61 "Punkapogg" State beneficiory

Lemuel Burr age 45 "Punkapogg" Occupation Barber

along with wife and 4 children:

Mary Burr age 39 "Colored"

Ann E. Burr age 14 "Punkapogg"

Lemuel D. Burr age 12 "Punkapogg"

Mary M Burr age 6 "Punkapogg"

Sally L. Burr age 4 "Punkapogg"

An 1872 Cambridge Directory lists a Lemuel Burr as "Hairdresser"

Seymour Burr died on February 17, 1837, and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Canton Corner, Canton, Mass., or at the graveyard at Burr Lane, Canton, Mass. His obituary was printed in the Liberator (Boston, MA), Feb. 25, 1837, p. 35: DIED-In Canton, 17th inst. Mr. Semore Burr, (a colored man) aged 98. He was a soldier during the whole of the Revolutionary war.
His widow died in 1852 at the age of either 98 or 101

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Molly Pitcher is the name given to a legendary Revolutionary War heroine. There is no record of a real person named "Molly Pitcher" in Revolutionary war records. Most historians agree it was a nickname for a person doing a particular job.

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Margaret Cochran Corbin." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Margaret Cochran Corbin." National Women's History Museum. 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/margaret-cochran-corbin.

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Margaret Cochran Corbin." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed. Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Margaret Cochran Corbin." National Women's History Museum. 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/margaret-cochran-corbin.

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At 18, she married Daniel Parke Custis, a tobacco planter 20 years her senior. She bore him four children. Only two, John "Jacky" and Martha "Patsy", survived to young adulthood. She was widowed in 1757 at age 26. In 1759, she married George Washington, a colonel in the British Army.

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(1761-1839). As a girl of only 16, Sybil Ludington made a valiant ride to spread the word of an impending British attack during the American Revolution. Her hometown in New York was renamed in her honor.

Ludington was born on April 5, 1761, in Fredericksburg (now Ludingtonville), New York. She was the daughter of Henry Ludington, a New York militia officer and later an aide to General George Washington. On April 26, 1777, a messenger reached the Ludington house with news of Governor William Tryon's attack on nearby Danbury, Connecticut, where the munitions and stores for the militia of the entire region were stored. Colonel Ludington immediately began to organize the local militia. The messenger and his horse being exhausted, Sybil volunteered to rouse the countryside for the fight. Through the night the 16-year-old girl rode her horse nearly 40 miles (65 kilometers) on unfamiliar roads, spreading the alarm. She covered about twice the distance that Paul Revere did on his famous ride. Sybil died on February 26, 1839, in Unadilla, New York.

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(1761-1839). As a girl of only 16, Sybil Ludington made a valiant ride to spread the word of an impending British attack during the American Revolution. Her hometown in New York was renamed in her honor. Ludington was born on April 5, 1761, in Fredericksburg (now Ludingtonville), New York.