Negro sol- are allowed at the rate of £120 for the most valuable slave, and in proportion to those of less value. diers in Rhode Island. "The number of slaves in this State is not great; but it is generally thought that three hundred and upwards will be enlisted. "I am, with great respect, Sir, your Excellency's most obedient, humble servant, "NICHOLAS COOKE. "To Gen. WASHINGTON." At the session of the General Assembly in which the Act was passed, "It is voted and resolved, That Messrs. Thomas Rumreil, Christopher Lippitt, Samuel Babcock, Thomas Tillinghast, and Josiah Humphrey, be, and they are hereby, appointed a committee to estimate the value of the slaves who may enlist into the Continental battalions, agreeably to a resolve of this Assembly." A short time after the act was passed, March the 9th, "It is voted and resolved, That the masters of all negro slaves, who are bound out as apprentices, that already have inlisted or shall inlist into the Continental service, shall be entitled to receive out of the General Treasury the annual interest of the sum the said slaves shall be appraised at, until the expiration of their apprenticeships; and that the money remain in the treasury until the expiration of the said apprenticeships, and then be paid to the owner without interest.' As it was not desirable to extend indefinitely the offer of freedom to slaves enlisting under this act, the General Assembly, at their May Session, adopted the following preamble and resolution: "Whereas, by an act of this Assembly, negro, mulatto, and Indian slaves, belonging to the inhabitants of this State, are permitted to inlist into the Continental battalions ordered to be raised by this State, and are thereupon for ever manumitted and discharged from the service of their masters; and whereas it is necessary, for answering the purposes intended by the said act, that the same shall be temporary, "It is therefore voted and resolved, that no negro, mulatto, or Indian slave, be permitted to inlist into said battalions from and after the tenth day of June next; and that the said act then expire, and be no longer in force, any thing therein to the contrary notwithstanding." At the October Session, 1778, Negro soldiers in Rhode "It is voted and resolved, That the General Treasurer pay unto Island. the owners of slaves who have enlisted as aforesaid, and who have not received notes for the estimated value of the same, the sums of money at which they were appraised, upon their producing certificates thereof from the committee appointed to give the same; and that the said owners be permitted to receive the whole or any part of the value of their slaves in Continental loan-office certificates." There is abundant evidence of the fidelity and bravery of the colored patriots of Rhode Island during the whole war. Before they had been formed into a separate regiment, they had fought valiantly with the white soldiers at Red Bank and elsewhere. Their conduct at the "Battle of Rhode Island," on the 29th of August, 1778, entitles them to perpetual honor. That battle has been pronounced by military authorities to have been one of the best fought battles of the Revolutionary War. Its success was owing, in a great degree, to the good fighting of the Negro soldiers. Mr. Arnold, in his "History of Rhode Island," thus closes his account of it: Greene's "A third time the enemy, with desperate courage and increased Colonel strength, attempted to assail the redoubt, and would have carried it, en but for the timely aid of two Continental battalions despatched by Regiment. Sullivan to support his almost exhausted troops. It was in repelling these furious onsets, that the newly raised black regiment, under Col. Greene, distinguished itself by deeds of desperate valor. Posted behind a thicket in the valley, they three times drove back the Hessians, who charged repeatedly down the hill to dislodge them; and so determined were the enemy in these successive charges, that, the day after the battle, the Hessian colonel, upon whom this duty had devolved, applied to exchange his command, and go to New York, because he dared not lead his regiment again to battle, lest his men should shoot him for having caused them so much loss." Arnold's History of Rhode Island, vol. ii. pp. 427, 428. Three years later, these soldiers are thus mentioned by the Marquis de Chastellux: Negro sol- Negro soldiers in setts. "The 5th [of January, 1781] I did not set out till eleven, although I had thirty miles' journey to Lebanon. At the passage to the ferry, I met with a detachment of the Rhode-Island regiment, the same corps we had with us all the last summer; but they have since been recruited and clothed. The greatest part of them are negroes or mulattoes : but they are strong, robust men; and those I have seen had a very good appearance." Chastellux' Travels, vol. i. p. 454; London, 1789. When Colonel Greene was surprised and murdered, near Points Bridge, New York, on the 14th of May, 1781, his colored soldiers heroically defended him till they were cut to pieces, and the enemy reached him over the dead bodies of his faithful negroes. In the spring of 1778, the General Court of Massachusetts, Massachu- also, was invoked to sanction the enlisting of negro soldiers. This would not have been without a precedent in her earlier legislation; for, in 1652, "negroes, Indians, and Scotchmen" (the indented captives of Cromwell, who had encountered his army at the battle of Dunbar), were alike, by law, obliged to train in the militia. In 1656, the law was altered so as to exempt "negroes and Indians"; but again, in 1660, a new law required "every person above the age of sixteen years to train, except certain classes of persons specified, and "except one servant of every magistrate and teaching elder, and the sons and servants of the Major-General for the time being." Those who are curious in tracing the early legislation on the subject will notice the continuance of this vacillation into the next century. On the 3d and the 7th of April, 1778, just before the doings. of the Rhode-Island General Assembly were communicated to the Legislature of Massachusetts, Thomas Kench, belonging to a regiment of artillery then at Castle Island, addressed to the General Court the following letters, which speak for themselves: "To the Honorable Council, and House of Representatives, Boston, or Negro solat Roxbury. diers in Massachusetts. Thomas "HONORED GENTLEMEN,-At the opening of this campaign, our forces should be all ready, well equipped with arms and ammunition, Kench's with clothing sufficient to stand them through the campaign, their letter. wages to be paid monthly, so as not to give the soldiery so much reason of complaint as it is the general cry from the soldiery amongst whom I am connected. "We have accounts of large re-enforcements a-coming over this spring against us; and we are not so strong this spring, I think, as we were last. Great numbers have deserted; numbers have died, besides what is sick, and incapable of duty, or bearing arms in the field. "I think it is highly necessary that some new augmentation should be added to the army this summer, all the re-enforcements that can possibly be obtained. For now is the time to exert ourselves or never; for, if the enemy can get no further hold this campaign than they now possess, we [have] no need to fear much from them hereafter. "A re-enforcement can quick be raised of two or three hundred men. Will your honors grant the liberty, and give me the command of the party? And what I refer to is negroes. We have divers of them in our service, mixed with white men. But I think it would be more proper to raise a body by themselves, than to have them intermixed with the white men; and their ambition would entirely be to outdo the white men in every measure that the fortune of war calls a soldier to endure. And I could rely with dependence upon them in the field of battle, or to any post that I was sent to defend with them; and they would think themselves happy could they gain their freedom by bearing a part of subduing the enemy that is invading our land, and clear a peaceful inheritance for their masters, and posterity yet to come, that they are now slaves to. "The method that I would point out to your Honors in raising a detachment of negroes ; that a company should consist of a hundred, including commissioned officers; and that the commissioned officers should be white, and consist of one captain, one captain-lieutenant, two second lieutenants; the orderly sergeant white; and that there should be three sergeants black, four corporals black, two drums and two fifes black, and eighty-four rank and file. These should engage soldiers in Negro to serve till the end of the war, and then be free men. And I doubt Massachu- not, that no gentleman that is a friend to his country will disapprove setts. Thomas Kench's second letter. of this plan, or be against his negroes enlisting into the service to maintain the cause of freedom, and suppress the worse than savage enemies of our land. 66 I beg your Honors to grant me the liberty of raising one company, if no more. It will be far better than to fill up our battalions with runaways and deserters from Gen. Burgoyne's army, who, after receiving clothing and the bounty, in general make it their business to desert from us. In the lieu thereof, if they are [of] a mind to serve in America, let them supply the families of those gentlemen where those negroes belong that should engage. "I rest, relying on your Honors' wisdom in this matter, as it will be a quick way of having a re-enforcement to join the grand army, or to act in any other place that occasion shall require; and I will give my faith and assurance that I will act upon honor and fidelity, should I take the command of such a party as I have been describing. "So I rest till your Honors shall call me; and am your very humble and obedient servant, “THOMAS KENCH, "In Col. Craft's Regiment of Artillery, now on Castle Island. "CASTLE ISLAND, April 3, 1778.” "To the Honorable Council in Boston. "The letter I wrote before I heard of the disturbance with Col. Seares, Mr. Spear, and a number of other gentlemen, concerning the freedom of negroes, in Congress Street. It is a pity that riots should be committed on the occasion, as it is justifiable that negroes should have their freedom, and none amongst us be held as slaves, as freedom and liberty is the grand controversy that we are contending for; and I trust, under the smiles of Divine Providence, we shall obtain it, if all our minds can but be united; and putting the negroes into the service will prevent much uneasiness, and give more satisfaction to those that are offended at the thoughts of their servants being free. "I will not enlarge, for fear I should give offence; but subscribe myself Your faithful servant, "CASTLE ISLAND, April 7, 1778." "THOMAS KENCH. (MS. Archives of Massachusetts, vol. cxcix. pp. 80, 84.) |