Black Patriot

A Black Patriot was an African American who sided with the revolutionary Americans during the American Revolutionary War. Black Patriots were the opposite of the group of Black Loyalists who were African Americans who took up the British offer of freedom and took refuge behind the Redcoat ranks. Black Patriots includes those (but is not limited to) those 5000 African Americans or more who fought on the Continental Army during the war.

Notable Black Patriots

Crispus Attucks is considered to be the first Black Patriot for his death in The Boston Massacre. Attucks was commemorated by his fellow Bostonians as a Martyr for freedom. Attucks was a man of mixed Native American and African ancestry who who was a fugitive slave after his escape in 1750 from an farm in Framingham, Massachusetts. His death in the Boston Massacre is considered the first in The American Revolutionary War.

Blacks who served in the Continental Army

After the British started recruiting African Americans to start serving or assisting the British cause on the promise of freedom, Americans began to recruit free blacks in New England and the East Coast to serve in the army. They were promised a life of luxury and mobility if they joined the war. The northerners were also trying to escape the harsh treatment of the slavery time era. By joining the war they believed they were bettering the lives of African Americans all over. William Lee was a slave and valet who served in the Continental Army and fought with George Washington. Lee was a constant presence in Washington's life and was considered to be his favorite slave, often appearing in the background of his portraits.