66

(1777.) Testimony of a Hessian officer, that there was no

regiment to be seen in which there were not negroes in abundance,”

142, 143. Capture of the British Major-General Prescott by Colonel

Barton, with the help of the negro man Prince, 143, 144.
Dr.

Thacher's account of it, 144, 145.

(1777.) Account of the employment of negro soldiers by the

State of Connecticut, 145-150.

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--

(1778.) Account of their employment by the State of Rhode

Island, 150-159. — Act for raising a negro regiment, 152-154. —

Distinguished services rendered by Colonel Greene's black regiment

in the battle of Rhode Island, 158. Chastellux's account of this

regiment in 1781, 159. Its subsequent heroic defence of Colonel

Greene, 159.

(1778.) Action of the State of Massachusetts on the subject,

159-162.- Precedent in her early legislation, negroes having been

obliged to train in the militia with white men in 1652, 159. — Propo-

sal of Thomas Kench to raise a separate corps of negroes in the

spring of 1778, 160-162. Referred to a joint committee of the

General Court, together with a copy of the Rhode-Island act, 162. —

Their report favorable, embodying the draught of a law, 162. — The

subject of a separate corps allowed to subside, and the usage conti-

nued of having negroes "intermixed with white men," 162.

Action of the State of Maryland on the subject, 163.

Action of the State of New York, 163.

-

(1779.) The employment of negroes as soldiers almost everywhere

prevailed, except in the States of Georgia and South Carolina, 164.—

Why they were exceptions, 164-167.— A vigorous effort in Congress

to secure the enrolment of black troops in those States, 167.- The

measure advocated by Colonel John Laurens, and by his father, Henry

Laurens, 167. Henry Laurens's letter to Washington, 167, 168.

Washington, in reply, suggests doubts as to the policy of arming the

slaves at the South, unless the enemy set the example; but says he

has never given much thought to the subject, 168.

-

(1779.) Alexander Hamilton heartily supports the measure, 168.

- His strong letter to John Jay, President of Congress, 169, 170. -

Congress refers the matter to a special committee; afterwards passes

resolutions, recommending to South Carolina and Georgia to raise a

force of "three thousand able-bodied negroes;" and commissions

Colonel Laurens to repair to the South on this business, 170-173. –

He writes to Washington that General Prevost, at Savannah, is

"re-enforced by a corps of blacks," 174.

(1779.) Sir Henry Clinton's Proclamation in consequence of

"the enemy's having adopted the practice of enrolling negroes among

their troops," 175.

Lord Cornwallis issues a proclamation, encouraging slaves to

join the British army, 175. — Mr. Jefferson's account of Cornwallis's

cruelty to those who joined his army, 175, 176.

(1780.) General Lincoln seconds Colonel Laurens in urging the

government of South Carolina to raise black troops, 177. — Mr.

Madison advocates the policy of "liberating and making soldiers at

once of the blacks themselves," instead of "making them instru-

ments for enlisting white soldiers," 178.

(1781.) General Greene writes to Washington, that in South Caro-

lina "the enemy have ordered two regiments of negroes to be imme-

diately embodied," 178.

(1782.) Colonel Laurens, on his return from France, renews his

efforts to induce South Carolina and Georgia to raise black troops,

178-181. His letters to Washington on the subject, and Washing-

ton's reply, 179–181.

-

(1782.) Colonel Humphreys continued to the end of the war to

be the nominal captain of a company of colored infantry, raised in

Connecticut by his influence before he became aid-de-camp to Wash-

ington, 181.

-

(1782.) Letter to Lord Dunmore from Mr. Cruden, proposing a

plan for raising ten thousand black troops, 182-186. - Letter of

Lord Dunmore to Sir Henry Clinton, approving the scheme, vouch-

ing for the excellence of such troops, and declaring his perfect

willingness "to hazard his reputation and person in the execution of

the plan," 187-189.

(1782.) Lord Dunmore writes to England, that the raising of a
brigade of negroes was negatived by a few voices in the Assembly of
South Carolina, and would probably be carried at a future day,
189, 190.

(1782.) General Greene proposes to the Governor of South

Carolina a plan for raising black regiments, 190, 191. — Judge John-

son's remarks on this plan, and on negroes as soldiers, 192, 193.—

Importance of the mature opinions of the preceding British and

American military authorities, 193.

(1783.) Washington's scrupulous regard for the rights of his

negro soldiers on their leaving the service, 194.

(1783.) The State of Virginia passes an act securing the freedom

of all slaves who had served in the army, 195, 196.

(1786.) Virginia passes a special act to pay for and emancipate a

slave who had "faithfully executed important commissions intrusted

to him by the Marquis Lafayette," 197.

Later testimonies to the competency of negroes to become good

soldiers, 197-199.- Dr. Eustis, a surgeon throughout the war of the

Revolution, 198, 199. Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, 199.

-

Concluding remarks, 200.

APPENDIX.

(A.) Negroes in the Navy.

(B.) Flag of a Negro Military Company in Boston.

(C.) Negro Regiments in the State of New York

(D.) General Jackson's Proclamation to the Negroes

(E.) Negro Soldiers under Monarchical Governments.

203

206

207

210

213

I.

NEGROES AS SLAVES AND AS CITIZENS.

"We cannot put the negro out. This remark serves as a complete stopper to all the crimination and recrimination so freely indulged in between parties on the solemn point, which of the two first brought the negro in. Let them rest quiet hereafter on this topic. The negro was in before they began to talk about him at all. He will stay in, whether they choose to talk about him or not. He will grow in more and more, even while they are sleeping. To deprecate the misfortune is as idle as to complain of the force of the waters of Niagara. The subject is before us; and it is our duty to face the consideration of its proportions like statesmen, and not to imagine, that, if we will only shut our eyes to it, it is not there; still less to suppose that either lamentation or anger, agitation or silence, will in any respect materially change the nature of the great problem which North America is inevitably doomed to solve. From the decree of Divine Providence there is no appeal." — Speech of the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, May 31, 1860, in the U. S. House of Representatives.