Black People... After 1492 - by Dr. Leroy Vaughn, MD, MBA. Historian

BLACK PEOPLE
AND THEIR PLACE IN WORLD HISTORY

by DR. LEROY VAUGHN, MD, MBA, HISTORIAN is now available on amazon.com.

AFTER 1492

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

BLACK INDIANS

LORD DUNMORE’S ETHIOPIAN REGIMENT

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS vs. BELGIUM KING LEOPOLD II

BLACKS AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

AFRICAN WARRIOR QUEEN NZINGA

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

The original Haitians were called the Arawaks or Tainos. Christopher Columbus wrote in his log that the Arawaks were well built with good bodies and handsome features. He also reported that the Arawaks were remarkable for their hospitality and their belief in sharing. He said, "they offered to share with anyone and that when you ask for something they never say no." The Arawaks lived in village communes with a well-developed agriculture of corn, yams, and cassava. They had the ability to spin and weave, as well as being able to swim long distances. The Arawaks did not bear arms nor did they have prisons or prisoners. Columbus wrote that when the Santa Maria became shipwrecked, the Arawaks worked for hours to save the crew and cargo and that they were so honest that not one thing was missing. Arawak women were treated so well in early Haitian society that it startled the Spaniards. Columbus said that the Arawak men were of great intelligence because they could navigate all of their islands and give an amazingly precise account of everything.
The chief source, and on many matters the only source of information about what happened on the islands after Columbus arrived, was noted by a Catholic priest named Bartolome De Las Casas who lived during the time of Columbus. He transcribed Columbus's journal and wrote a multi-volume "History of the Indies." Las Casas says that Columbus returned to America on his second voyage with seventeen ships and with more than 1,200 heavily armed men with horses and attack dogs. Their aim was clearly to obtain as much gold and as many slaves as possible according to De Las Casas. Columbus went from island to island in the Caribbean, taking Arawaks as captives. He ordered everyone over the age of 14 to produce specific quantities of gold every three months, and if the Arawak could not produce this quota, Columbus then had his hands cut off; and left him to bleed to death.
If the Arawaks ever tried to escape, they were hunted down by the attack dogs and either hanged or burned alive. Within just two years, half of the three million Arawaks of Haiti died from murder, mutilation or suicide. Bishop De Las Casas reported that the Spaniards became so lazy that they refused to walk any distance; and either rode the backs of the Arawaks or were carried on hammocks by Arawaks who ran them in relays.
In other cases, the Spaniards had the Arawaks carry large leaves for their shade and had others to fan them with goose wings. Women were used as sex slaves and their children were murdered and then thrown into the sea. The Spaniards were so cruel, they thought nothing of cutting off slices of human flesh from the Arawaks just to test the sharpness of their blades. Bishop De Las Casas wrote, "My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that now I tremble as I write.”
Christopher Columbus started the Trans-Atlantic slave trade by taking 500 of the healthiest men back to Spain to sell into slavery, and the proceeds from the sale helped to pay for his third voyage. The massive slave trade moving in the other direction, across the Atlantic from Africa to the Americas, was also begun in Haiti and was started by the son of Christopher Columbus in 1505 A.D. On his third voyage to Haiti, Queen Isabelle's new Governor, Francisco De Bobadilla, had Christopher Columbus and his two brothers arrested and sent back to Spain in chains as prisoners for their crimes against the Arawaks.
Would Columbus Day still be celebrated if the real history of Christopher Columbus were told from the viewpoint of his victims?

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blant, J. M. (1992) 1492: Debate on Colonialism, Eurocenterism & Hist. Trenton, NJ: African World Press
Bradley, M. (1992) The Columbus Conspiracy. Brooklyn, NY: A & B Books.
Carew, J. (1988) Fulcrums of Change. Trenton, NJ: African World Press.
Carew, J. (1994) Rape of Paradise. Brooklyn, NY: A & B Books
Cohen, J. M. (ed.) (1976) Native Population of the Americas in 1492. Madison: University of Wisc. Press.
Konig, H. (1991) Columbus: His Enterprise, Exploding the Myth. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Mahtown, P. (1992) Columbus: Sinking the Myth. New York: World View Forum.
Nash, G. (1970) Red, White, and Black: The People of Early America. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Williams, E. (1970) From Columbus to Castro. New York: Vintage Books.
Zinn, H. (1980) A People’s History of the United States. New York: Harper Perennial.

BLACK INDIANS

Black Indians, like other African Americans, have been treated by the writers of history as invisible. Two parallel institutions joined to create Black Indians: the seizure and mistreatment of Indians and their lands, and the enslavement of Africans. Today just about every African American family tree has an Indian branch. Europeans forcefully entered the African blood stream, but native Americans and Africans merged by choice, invitation and love. The two people discovered that they shared many vital views such as the importance of the family with children and the elderly being treasured. Africans and Native Americans both cherished there own trustworthiness and saw promises and treaties as bonds never to be broken. Religion was a daily part of cultural life, not merely practiced on Sundays. Both Africans and Native Americans found they shared a belief in economic cooperation rather than competition and rivalry. Indians taught Africans techniques in fishing and hunting, and Africans taught Indians techniques in tropical agriculture and working in agricultural labor groups. Further, Africans had a virtual immunity to European diseases such as small pox which wiped out large communities of Native Americans.
The first recorded alliance in early America occurred on Christmas Day, 1522, when African and Indian slaves on a plantation owned by Christopher Columbus's son, rebelled and murdered their White masters. These Indian and African slaves escaped into the woods together and were never recaptured. Another successful alliance occurred around 1600 when runaway slaves and friendly Indians formed the Republic of Palmares in northeastern Brazil, which successfully fought the Dutch and Portuguese for almost one hundred years. The Republic of Palmares grew to have one half mile long streets that were six feet wide and lined with hundreds of homes, churches, and shops. Its well-kept lands produced cereals and crops irrigated by African style streams. The Republic was ruled by a king named "Ganga-Zumba" which combined the African word for great with the Indian word for ruler.
The history of the Saramaka people of Surinam in South America started around 1685, when African and Native American slaves escaped and together formed a maroon society which fought with the Dutch for 80 years, until the Europeans abandoned their wars and sued for peace. Today the Saramakans total 20,000 people of mixed African-Indian ancestry.
By 1650, Mexico had a mixed African-Indian population of 100,000. Race mixing became so common in Mexico that the Spanish government passed laws prohibiting the two races from living together or marrying. In 1810, Vincente Guerrero of mixed African-Indian ancestry led the war for independence. In 1829, he became president of Mexico and immediately abolished slavery and the death sentence. He also began far reaching reforms including the construction of schools and libraries for the poor.
Escaped slaves became Spanish Florida's first settlers. They joined refugees from the Creek Nation and called themselves Seminoles, which means runaways. Intermixing became so common that they were soon called Black Seminoles. Africans taught the Indians rice cultivation and how to survive in the tropical terrain of Florida. Eventually the Black Seminoles had well-built homes and raised fine crops of corn, sweet potatoes, and vegetables. They even owned large herds of live stock. The Black Seminoles struck frequently against slave plantations and runaway slaves swelled their ranks. The U.S. government launched three massive war campaigns against the Seminole nation over a period of 40 years. The second war alone cost the U.S. government over $40 million and 1,500 soldiers. The Seminoles eventually signed a peace treaty with President Polk, which was violated in 1849, when the U.S. Attorney General ruled that Black Seminoles were still slaves under U.S. law.
Black Indian societies were so common in every east coast state that by 1812, state legislatures began to remove the tax exemption status of Indian land by claiming that the tribes were no longer Indian. A Moravian missionary visited the Nanticoke nation on Maryland's eastern shore to compile a vocabulary of their language and found they were speaking pure African Mandingo.
After the Civil War, very few Blacks ever left their Indian nation because this was the only society that could guarantee that they would never be brutalized nor lynched. If Europeans had followed the wonderfully unique model of harmony, honesty, friendship, and loyalty exhibited by the African and Indian populations in North and South America, the "new world" could truly have been the land of the free, the home of the brave, and a place where "all men are created equal."

BLACK INDIANS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Albers, J. (1975) Interaction of Color. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Amos, A. & Senter, T. (eds.) 1996) The Black Seminoles. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Bailey, L. (1966) Indian Slave Trade in the Southwest, Los Angeles: Westernlore.
Bemrose, J. (1966) Reminiscences of the Second Seminole War. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Boxer, F. (1963) Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire 1415-1825. Oxford: Claredon Press.
Browser, F. (1974) The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524-1650. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Cohen, D. & Greene, J. (eds.) Neither Slave nor Free.. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.
Covington, J. (1982) Billy Bowlegs War: The Final Stand of the Seminoles.. Cluluota, FL. Mickler House.
Craven, W. (1971) White, Red, & Black: The 17th Cent. Virginian. Charlottesville: Univ. of Virginia Press.
Forbes, J. (1964) The Indian in America’s Past. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Forbes, J. (1993) Africans and Native Americans. Chicago: University of Illinois.
Katz, Loren (1986) Black Indians. New York Macmillan Publishing Co.
Nash, G. (1970) Red, White, and Black: The People of Early America. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

LORD DUNMORE’S ETHIOPIAN REGIMENT

Few textbooks acknowledge the tremendous contribution made by Black soldiers during the Revolutionary War. An even lesser known fact is that Black slaves also fought for the British in an attempt to win their freedom. Many slaves in fact were deceived by the British into thinking that American slavery would end if the British army defeated the American Continental Army. The British actually imprinted the inscription “Liberty to Slaves” across the chest of each Black volunteer soldier.
In November 1775, John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore and British Governor of Virginia, decided that the Revolutionary War would no longer continue as the “White man’s war.” Both the American and British senior strategists had banned the use of Black soldiers, but Lord Dunmore saw the British as hopelessly outnumbered and was unwilling to overlook any potential support. He also hoped a slave insurrection would deprive the American army of much needed labor for building fortifications and disrupt the American economy since slave labor produced most of the cash crops. Lord Dunmore’s proclamation declared “all indentured servants, Negroes, or others: FREE, that are able and willing to bear arms…to his Majesty’s crown and dignity.”
Dunmore’s proclamation led Blacks to believe that the British were genuinely opposed to slavery. Since most American leaders such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were prominent slaveholders, many Blacks saw the British opportunity as their only chance for freedom and consequently joined the British in large numbers. J. A. Rogers states that “5,000 joined Dunmore at Norfolk; 25,000 fled from their masters in South Carolina and nearly seven-eighths of the slaves in Georgia.” Nearly 2,000 slaves joined the British forces under General Cornwallis including numerous slaves from George Washington’s plantation. Thomas Jefferson declared that Virginia alone lost 30,000 and others estimate that as many as 100,000 slaves found their way to the British lines. One half of Dunmore’s troops that fought at Great Bridge on December 9, 1775 were runaway slaves.
Runaway slaves armed by the British are said to have terrorized the South. Many slaves overpowered their masters and handed their plantations over to the British. In the North, a strong garrison of Blacks known as the “Negro Fort,” defeated their former masters in a battle in the Bronx, New York City. Other Blacks joined the British Navy as seamen and pilots and successfully stole American ships and attacked numerous coastal towns. During the sieges of Charleston and Savannah, thousands of Black laborers built fortifications, while others in Virginia constructed two dams. Blacks also served as guides, spies, and intelligence agents for invading British armies. Ex-slave Thomas Johnson claimed to have conducted the detachment which surprised Colonial Washington at Monks Corner. The British even created a Black cavalry troop in 1782. British General William Phillips commented: “These Negroes have undoubtedly been of the greatest use.”
George Washington told Congress that “Dunmore’s appeal made him the most formidable enemy America has; and his strength will increase like a snowball by rolling and faster if some expedient cannot be hit upon to convince the slaves and servants of the impotency of his designs.” American slaveholders were still unwilling to arm their slaves until all other countermeasures were tried. Highway and river patrols were instituted to capture runaway slaves. Vigorous anti-British propaganda was circulated and southern slaves were frequently hidden in mines to avoid British capture. Several southern states even approved the death penalty for recaptured slaves, but nothing could stop the Black contributions to the British war effort. General Washington wrote Colonel Henry Lee on December 20, 1775: “We must use the Negroes or run the risk of loosing the war…success will depend on which side can arm the Negroes faster.”
The Continental Army finally agreed to accept African American volunteers (both slave and free) when the desertion rate of White soldiers began to reach enormous proportions. Washington complained: “The lack of patriotism is infinitely more to be dreaded than the whole of Great Britain assisted by Negro allies.” Once freedom was promised, African Americans showed the real “Spirit of ‘76” and joined the Continental Army in such massive numbers that General Schuyler wrote: “Is it consistent with the sons of freedom to trust their all to be defended by slaves?” On October 23, 1777, a British officer named Schlozer wrote: “The Negro can take the field instead of his master and therefore no regiment is to be seen in which there are not Negroes in abundance and among them are able-bodied, strong, and brave fellows.” Sir Henry Clinton wrote Lord Germaine, British Minister of State: “It is safe to say that but for the aid of the Negro, independence would not have been won.”
The American victory required the evacuation of all persons who had been loyal to the British. About 27,000 White Loyalists were relocated to Nova Scotia, Canada, but the majority of the Black Loyalists were betrayed by the British government which sold almost all of the former slaves back into slavery. Only the original 3,500 Black soldiers who became “Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment” were relocated to Nova Scotia. Although they were promised land and provisions, most Blacks received neither and became beggars or cheap laborers for White Loyalists who were given farms as large as 200 acres by the government with free provisions for three years. When a London based abolition group headed by John Clarkson offered the Black Loyalists a new home in Africa, over 1,200 sailed in 15 crowded ships for Sierra Leone on January 15, 1792 where they founded the capital city of Freetown. The Nova Scotians eventually embraced and intermarried with the African community and provided the core of what became the national culture, language, and early leadership of Sierra Leone. However, more than two centuries later, their descendents still identify themselves as Nova Scotians and the direct descendents of “Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment.”

LORD DUNMORE’S ETHIOPIAN REGIMENT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aptheker, H. (1940) The Negro in the American Revolution. New York.
Armstrong, M. (1948) The Great Awakening in Nova Scotia, 1766-1809. Hartford.
Banton, M. (1957) West African City: A Study of Tribal Life in Freetown. London.
Beck, M. (1957) The Government of Nova Scotia. Toronto.
Bennett, L. (1988) Before the Mayflower. New York.
Butt-Thompson, F. (1926) Sierra Leone in History and Tradition. London.
Clairmont, D. (1970) Nova Scotian Blacks: An Historical and Structural Overview. Halifax.
Clendenen, C. & Duigan, P. (1964) Americans in Black Africa up to 1865. Stanford.
Crooks, J. (1903) A History of the Colony of Sierra Leone, West Africa. Dublin.
Davis, D. (1966) The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture. New York.
Elkins, S. (1959) Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life. New York.
Franklin, J. (1969) From Slavery to Freedom. New York.
Rogers, J. (1989) Africa’s Gift to America, St. Petersburg, FL.
Walker, J. (1992) The Black Loyalists. Toronto.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS vs. BELGIUM KING LEOPOLD II

In trying to determine the worse human rights violator over the past 500 years, two candidates far and away exceed all others. Adolph Hitler was not even close because he is only credited with killing six million people and his reign of terror only lasted about six years. Over a period of 25 years, Belgium King Leopold II was able to reduce the population of the Congo from 20 million to 10 million. Twenty five years after Christopher Columbus entered Haiti, the Arawak population was reduced to zero, that is, total annihilation or genocide.
In describing the exploits of Columbus, Dominican priest Bartolome de Las Casas wrote: “My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that I tremble as I write.” Famous American author Joseph Conrad called Leopold’s Congo: “The vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience.” Despite a death toll of holocaust dimensions, these men are not even mentioned in the standard litany of human horrors. Our children are given history books that describe Columbus as a heroic adventurer and an outstanding seaman. This heroic image is further perpetuated by Columbus Day celebrations and the fact that streets, schools, cities, and even countries have been named after him. King Leopold II enjoys an equally positive reputation. Belgium history describes him as a “philanthropic monarch who was much admired throughout Europe.” He is praised for investing a large portion of his personal fortune in public works projects to benefit both Europe and Africa. The current image of these two men could not be further from the truth! Both left behind a heritage of racism, greed, hunger, exploitation, and genocide. Leopold matched Columbus so closely in atrocities that one has to wonder whether they represent the same man reincarnated.
Both Columbus and Leopold were great salesmen and great liars. To help finance his second voyage, Columbus told the Spanish Monarch that “there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold…there are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals.” Columbus was so convincing that Queen Isabella provided him with 17 ships and 1,200 men for his second voyage and promised him 10% of all the gold and precious metals he brought back. Leopold’s opportunity for salesmanship and lying came at the Berlin Conference (November 1884 - February 1885) where European countries met to decide how they would divide up Africa. Leopold begged for the Congo Basin and guaranteed the well being of the Congo’s native population. Leopold told the American delegation that “Belgium deserves the opportunity to prove to the world that it also was an imperial people, capable of dominating and enlightening others.” Since Leopold knew that the Belgium parliament and Belgium people had no interest in Africa, he essentially was arguing for a land mass 80 times the size of Belgium, which he would own personally.
Columbus and Leopold saw the profits from their new lands as virtually limitless if enough free labor were available. Both men immediately proceeded to institute slavery among the native population and set quotas for individual production. The favorite method of punishment by Columbus and Leopold for not meeting quotas was to cut off the hands.
Columbus ordered all persons 14 years old and older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Arawaks found without copper tokens to hang around their necks had their hands cut off and bled to death. Leopold chose to set quotas for ivory and rubber for each village. When a village fell short of its quota, his soldiers brutally raided the village and cut off the victims’ right hands. Sean Kelly wrote: “Hands became a sort of currency in that soldiers were paid their bonuses on the basis of how many right hands they collected.”
Columbus and Leopold were exceptionally cruel to women and children. Both men allowed their soldiers to kidnap women as sex slaves, and they also held women and children as hostages to insure that the native men would not run away. Female hostages were usually poorly fed and large numbers died of starvation. Newborns also had a very high mortality rate because the mothers were too famished to provide nursing milk.
The Arawaks and Africans both fought back but were no match for the armor and swords of Columbus nor the guns and artillery of Leopold’s soldiers. Rebelling natives were treated exceedingly cruel by both oppressors. Although both men used hanging, Columbus preferred burning victims alive if possible or feeding them to the attack dogs. Leopold’s soldiers enjoyed summary executions followed by chopping off the victims’ heads and placing the heads on poles around their gardens. Guillaume Van Kerckhoven, a Leopold officer, cheerfully bragged to a missionary that he paid his Black soldiers five brass rods per human head they brought him during the course of any military operation he conducted. He said it was to stimulate their prowess in the face of the enemy.
A single man in both cases dedicated his life to exposing the atrocities of Columbus and Leopold to the world. Bartolome de Las Casas, a Dominican priest, was initially a friend of Columbus and helped transcribe his journals. However, he soon became a vehement critic of Spanish cruelty and published a two-volume book detailing Spanish torture. He estimates that three million Arawaks died between 1495 and 1508. Edmund Dene Morel, a trusted employee of the Liverpool shipping line, dedicated his life to exposing the atrocities of King Leopold. He single-handedly put this subject on the world’s front pages for more than a decade, which resulted in worldwide protest rallies. Morel mobilized everyone from Booker T. Washington to the Archbishop of Canterbury to join his cause. He even went to the White House insisting to President Theodore Roosevelt that the United States had a special responsibility to do something about the Congo since the U.S. helped Leopold at the Berlin Conference. Morel’s unrelenting efforts resulted in western powers forcing King Leopold to sell the Congo to Belgium in 1908.
Despite responsibility for death tolls of holocaust dimensions, neither Christopher Columbus nor King Leopold II was convicted or imprisoned for any crimes. Both men lived a full life and died exceptionally rich. Columbus spent his last years living in a mansion in Valladolid with an annual income of $60,000 from his Hispaniola sugar plantations (a fortune in the 1500s). Leopold died in 1909 with a personal fortune (produced by the Congo’s ivory and rubber) of well over a billion dollars in today’s currency.
In order to prevent the human atrocities of Columbus and Leopold from ever reoccurring, it might be prudent to adopt the current philosophy regarding Adolph Hitler; that is, constant reminders of the holocausts in newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, and even holocaust museums followed by the statement: “Never Again.”

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS VS BELGIUM KING LEOPOLD II BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anstey, R. (1966) King Leopold’s Legacy: Congo Under Belgian Rule 1908-1960. London: Oxford Univ. Pr.
Bauer, L. (1935) Leopold the Unloved: King of the Belgians and of Wealth. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co.
Blant, J. M. (1992) 1492: Debate on Colonialism, Eurocenterism and Hist. Trenton, NJ: African World Pr.
Bradley, M. (1992) The Columbus Conspiracy. Brooklyn, NY: A & B Books.
Carew, J. (1994) Rape of Paradise. Brooklyn, NY: A & B Books.
Cohen, J. M. (ed.) (1969) Christopher Columbus: The Four Voyages. London: Penguin Books.
De Las Casas, B. (1971) History of the Indies. New York: Harper and Row.
Emerson, B. (1979) Leopold II of the Belgiums: King of Colonialism. London: Weidenfield and Nicolson.
Fetter, B. (1983) Colonial Rule and Regional Imbalance in Central Africa. Boulder, Co: Westview Press.
Gann, L. & Duignan, P. (1979) Rulers of Belgium Africa 1884 - 1914. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hochschild, A. (1998) King Leopold’s Ghost. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.

BLACKS AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

African American participation was enormous during the events leading to American Independence, but these contributions are seldom mentioned in contemporary history books. For example, Crispus Attucks, a Black man and probably an escaped slave, was the first person killed in Boston when tensions between British soldiers and an angry crowd resulted in the death of five people. March 5, 1770 was initially called the day of the Boston Massacre but the name was soon changed to Crispus Attucks Day. Crispus Attucks Day remained the chief American anniversary until independence was won and it was replaced by July 4^th. John Adams, our second president, called March 5, 1770 the most important event in American history. On October 13, 1888 a monument was erected on Boston Common called the Crispus Attucks Memorial.
British resentment increased dramatically after the Boston Massacre until things finally exploded on April 19, 1775, into the Revolutionary War. At least a dozen Black militiamen were among those firing the “shots heard round the world” at Lexington on April 19th. One of the first Americans to fall was a Black minuteman named Prince Estabrook. The second major clash was fought at Bunker Hill on June 17th, where two African Americans again became great heroes. Peter Salem became famous after he shot and killed Major Pitcairn, the British commander. Salem Poor so distinguished himself in this same battle that 13 officers including his commander, Colonel Brewer, recommended him for official recognition to the General Court of Massachusetts.
However, less than 6 months after Lexington and the Battle of Bunker Hill, a pattern of exclusion of Blacks from the new nation’s military units had begun to develop. Southern slave owners protested vehemently against the use of Black people in the Revolutionary War including George Washington who himself was a slave owner. Finally, on October 8, 1775, Continental Army headquarters bowed to southern pressure and issued a decree excluding all African Americans from service in Continental units.
As the war dragged on and the number of White deserters became enormous, Washington complained that “the lack of patriotism is infinitely more to be dreaded than the whole British Army.” Washington changed his mind drastically after his defeat by the British at New York, when he was greatly outnumbered. He then partitioned the new government to welcome all able-bodied men into the Continental Army whether Black or White, slave or free. Accordingly, on March 14, 1779, Alexander recommended that South Carolina and Georgia “take measures for raising 3,000 able-bodied Negroes who would receive no pay but would be emancipated at the end of the war.” White slave masters of the North and South who didn’t want to risk their lives or their sons’ lives were allowed to send slaves to take their place. There were soon so many Black soldiers that General Schuyler wrote “is it consistent with the sons of freedom to trust their ALL to be defended by slaves?” Nineteenth century American historian, Ben J. Lossing, wrote that “as the war went on, and the ranks of the army grew thinner, an increasing number of Negroes took the place of the Whites, until it began to appear that Ethiopia as well as America was in arms.” Baron Von Clausen stated that of the 20,000 men he saw with Washington in January, 1781, “5,000 were Negroes.”
It is indisputable that African Americans provided the balance of power that brought America independence. They distinguished themselves in every possible manner from combat soldier to support personnel who built virtually every fortification and new building from Vermont to South Carolina. Sir Henry Clinton wrote Lord Germaine, British Minister of State, “it is safe to say that but for the aid of the Negro, independence would not have been won.” All Black regiments as well as individual soldiers who distinguished themselves were mentioned by the hundreds. Rhode Island, with a small population and two thirds of its territory occupied by the British, became the first colony to authorize the enlistment of all slave regiments. At the battle of Rhode Island, August 27, 1778, a regiment of 226 slaves repelled a force of 6,000 British who charged them three times in an attempt to dislodge them from a strategic valley. Dr. Harris wrote “they preserved our army from capture and helped gain our liberty.” General Lafayette called this “the best action of the whole war.”
A company of Blacks from Boston called the “Bucks of America” rendered such valuable service that John Hancock gave them a special flag and honored them with a special affair at Boston. George Bancroft wrote of the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey in 1778, “may history record that more than 700 Black men offered their lives for their country and fought side by side with Whites.” Commander Nathaniel Shaler thought so highly of the Black soldiers who fought under him that he sent a letter to Governor Thompkins stating that “they ought to be registered in the book of fame and remembered as long as bravery is considered a virtue.”
In general, the contributions of Black Americans who had fought to bring freedom to America were not forgotten. Virtually all of the slaves who fought in the war received their freedom after the war. In fact, the institution of slavery did not even last throughout the war in most northern states. In 1777, Vermont became the first state to abolish slavery. Pennsylvania followed in 1780, and Massachusetts in 1783. Rhode Island freed its slaves in 1784. Even Virginia passed a law freeing all slaves who participated in the war. Unfortunately, the contributions of African Americans were soon forgotten in the South, where the vast majority of them lived, and the institution of slavery soon returned to business as usual.

First American Revolutionary War Announcement

(F REPLACED WITH MODERN S) …
HOURS TO THE GATES OF THIS CITY MANY THOUSANDS OF OUR BRAVE BRETHREN IN THE COUNTRY, DEEPLY AFFECTED WITH OUR DISTRESSES, AND TO WHOM WE ARE GREATLY OBLIGED ON THIS OCCASION – NO ONE KNOWS WHERE THIS WOULD HAVE ENDED, AND WHAT IMPORTANT CONSEQUENCES EVEN TO THE WHOLE BRITISH EMPIRE MIGHT HAVE FOLLOWED, WHICH OUR MODERATION & LOYALTY UPON SO TRYING AN OCCASION, AND OUR FAITH IN THE COMMANDER’S ASSURANCES HAVE HAPPILY PREVENTED.
LAST THURSDAY,
AGREEABLE TO A GENERAL REQUEST OF THE INHABITANTS, AND BY THE CONSENT OF PARENTS AND FRIENDS, WERE CARRIED TO THEIR GRAVE IN SUCCESSION,
THE BODIES OF SAMUEL GRAY, SAMUEL MAVERICK, JAMES CALDWELL, AND CRISPUS ATTUCKS, THE UNHAPPY VICTIMS WHO FELL IN THE BLOODY MASSACRE OF THE MONDAY EVENING PRECEDING !
ON THIS OCCASION MOST OF THE SHOPS IN TOWN WERE SHUT, ALL THE BELLS WERE ORDERED TO TOLL A SOLEMN PEAL,
AS WERE ALSO THOSE IN THE NEIGHBORING TOWNS OF CHARLESTON ROXBURY, &C. THE PROCESSION BEGAN
TO MOVE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF
4 AND 5 IN THE AFTERNOON ; TWO OF THE UNFORTUNATE SUFFERS, VIZ. MEFF. JAMES CALDWELL AND CRISPUS ATTUCKS, WHO WERE STRANGERS, BORNE FROM FANEUIL-HALL,

BLACKS AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aptheker, H. (1974) Documentary History of the Negro People in the US. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press.
Bailyn, B. & Garrett, N. (eds.) (1965) Pamphlets of the Am. Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Pr.
Becker C. (1958) Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas. NY: Random House.
Degler, C. (1970) Out of Our Past. New York: Harper and Row.
Hill, C. (1964) Puritanism and Revolution. New York: Schocken.
Kurtz, S. & Hutson, J. (eds.) Essays on the American Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of NC
Lynd, S. (1967) Class Conflict, Slavery, and the Constitution. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Maier, P. (1972) From Resistance to Revolution.., 1765-1776. New York: Knopf.
Shy, J. (1976) A People Numerous & Armed.. New York: Oxford University Press.
Smith, P. (1976) A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the Am. Revolution. NY: McGraw-Hill.
Young, A. (ed.) (1976) The American Revolution…DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press.
Zinn, H. (1980) A People’s History of the United States. New York: Harper Perennial.

AFRICAN WARRIOR QUEEN NZINGA

Nzinga (1582-1663) became queen of what is now called Angola in 1623 and dedicated her entire life to fighting the Portuguese to prevent the enslavement of her people. She proved to be a cunning rival to the Portuguese and became famous for her intelligence, bravery, and brilliant military strategies, which were imitated for centuries during struggles for independence throughout Africa.
In the 16^th century, the Portuguese stake in the slave trade was threatened by England, France, and the Dutch. This caused the Portuguese to transfer their slave-trading activities southward to the Congo and to Southwest Africa. Their most stubborn opposition, as they entered the final phase of the conquest of Angola, came from a queen who became a legendary head of state and military leader with few peers in world history.
Nzinga was one of five children born to her powerful father, King (or ngola) Kiluanji of Ndongo - which the Portuguese called Angola after the word for king: ngola. The Mbundu tribe of King Kiluanji initially welcomed the Portuguese as trading partners. In fact, King Kiluanji became wealthy and powerful enough through Portuguese trading that he conquered all the surrounding territories.
Subsequently, disputes over these new territories created the rift that eventually ended the Portuguese alliance. King Kiluanji was such a great fighter that he was able to repel the early Portuguese invasions of the border territories. When Kiluanji died, his eldest son Mbandi declared himself king. Mbandi, however, he greatly feared the Portuguese guns and canons and when they advanced, he fled to an island on the Cuanza River and asked his sister Nzinga to negotiate a peace treaty with the Portuguese governor. The arrogant Portuguese had been appointing governors over Angola for over forty years without having control.
Nzinga’s 1622 negotiating conference with the new governor, Joao Correa DeSouza, has become a legend in the history of Africa’s confrontation with Europe. Despite the fact that her brother had surrendered everything to the Portuguese, Nzinga arrived as a royal negotiator rather than a humble conquered messenger. When the governor only provided one chair for himself, she summoned one of her women, who provided a royal carpet and then fell to her hands and knees to become a human seat. When Governor DeSouza entered, he found himself already out maneuvered. When the governor asked for the release of all Portuguese war prisoners, Nzinga smilingly agreed, provided all her Mbundu people who had been carried off to Brazil and elsewhere were brought back in exchange. This condition was eventually reduced to returning Portuguese prisoners in exchange for allowing her brother, King Mbandi, to remain ruler of an independent Ndongo kingdom and withdrawing the Portuguese army. Nzinga made it clear she would only negotiate a treaty on equal terms.
Probably as part of a private agreement intended to reinforce the treaty, Nzinga stayed in town and became baptized as “Anna” in the Christian faith. Such a move was more political than religious because Nzinga knew that even her father had opposed the mass conversion to Christianity of the Mbundu. She knew that the Jesuit priests ran the slave trade for the Portuguese. They sprinkled “Holy Water” while officiating at daily mass baptisms on the docks, where lines of captives shuffled into slave ships with such names as “Jesus” and “John the Baptist.” Nzinga also knew that her status as a “Christian” ally of Portugal would entitle her people to favored status. She was even politically astute enough to allow herself the full Christian name of Dona Anna DeSouza in order to strengthen her links with the governor.
Shortly after negotiating with Nzinga, Governor DeSouza was replaced by a new governor after quarreling with the Jesuit priests. The new governor promptly broke all the treaty agreements. Nzinga demanded that her brother, King Mbandi, declare war on the Portuguese. Unfortunately, cowardly King Mbandi had no such intentions and went to the Portuguese asking for protection against Nzinga and to re-enforce his authority over his own people. Nzinga, now determined to do away with this treacherous weakling, had him killed and then promptly declared war on the Portuguese herself. She initially trained an all female army which repeatedly defeated the Portuguese using guerilla style tactics. She then recruited neighboring tribes and also allied with the Dutch. The Dutch military attaché who accompanied her reported that the people loved Nzinga so much that everyone fell to their knees and kissed the ground as she approached. He believed that all were willing to die under her leadership. The Portuguese retreated to their strongholds and forts on the coast giving the Dutch threat as an excuse and not the threat of being annihilated by the queen’s forces. Nzinga’s main goal was always to end the enslavement of her people. She even sent word throughout Africa in 1624, that any slave who could make it to her territory was henceforth and forever free. This act alone should make Nzinga one of the greatest women in history because there was no other place on the continent of Africa that offered such freedom.
The Portuguese responded to this threat by calling in a massive force of men and artillery from their colony of Brazil. Nzinga’s guerilla warfare tactics for resisting the well armed Portuguese soldiers have been much admired and even imitated successfully in this century. Since the Portuguese used large numbers of Black soldiers, she became the first Black leader and most successful to carefully organize efforts to undermine and destroy the effective employment of Black soldiers by Whites. She instructed her soldiers to infiltrate the Portuguese by allowing themselves to become recruited by Portuguese agents. Once members of the Portuguese military, her soldiers would encourage rebellion and desertion by the Black troops which frequently resulted in whole companies of Portuguese soldiers joining Nzinga along with much needed guns and ammunition. This quiet and effective work of Nzinga’s agents among the Black troops of Portugal is one of the most glorious, yet unsung, pages of African history. The Portuguese generals frequently complained that they never knew which Black soldier was friend or foe.
When the massive Portuguese manpower and firepower began to gain the upper hand, she sent word throughout Angola that she had died in order to stop the Portuguese offensive. While pretending to have died in Angola, Nzinga moved east to the neighboring country of Matamba where she defeated the ruling queen and created a new land for herself, her people, and all escaped slaves. She consolidated her power in Matamba and then began sending out war parties from Matamba to attack any settlement or tribe that had aided the Portuguese. In 1629 the Portuguese stood shocked when Queen Nzinga “burst upon them from the grave” recapturing large segments of her own country. She was now queen of both Matamba and Ndongo and redoubled her efforts against slavery by dealing ruthlessly with any Black chief found participating in the slave trade.
Nzinga never stopped resisting the powerful Portuguese even as she approached her 80^th birthday. She was called the “Black Terror” by the Portuguese and was clearly the greatest adversary and military strategist that ever confronted the armed forces of Portugal. Her tactics kept the Portuguese commanders in confusion and dismay and her constant aim was never less than the total destruction of the slave trade. The long guerilla campaign that led to Angola independence 300 years later was continuously inspired by the queen who never surrendered.

AFRICAN WARRIOR QUEEN NZINGA BIBLIOGRAPHY

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