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African American's Impact On The American Revolution

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The Words of War African American’s had a huge impact on the American Revolution. During this time period (1761-1776), most of the African American population were enslaved but,others were born free. Some of them helped the colonists in their fights against the British, while others helped the British fight and some even fought for both sides. For the colonists they would contribute in riots and other outbursts. The year of 1770 Crispus Attucks a black dock worker was killed in the Boston Massacre. This was the first major event for the colonists to get away from British rule. After Crispus Attucks death other blacks started to join or participate in outbursts of the colonists towards the British. Blacks participated in pre war-skirmishes with the colonists. African’s had a group called the minutemen who alerted Paul Revere when the “British were coming”. When they would have little wars against the Indians blacks would offset the manpower by fighting with them. Yet the still forbad the recruitment of African American’s. George Washington sent out an order to never enlist blacks for any possible reason. This act upset the blacks because they tried to do nothing but good to them. …show more content…

In 1775 Dunmore’s Declaration changed the lives of many blacks. His declaration clearly stated that any slave who left their american owner to fight with the British would be granted their freedom. There was one downside of this Declaration. Thousands of blacks from virginia decided to cast their trust with the British. Blacks were present for all major battles for the British such as Trenton in 1776. Most black soldiers were free and from the Northern colonies. Most blacks were freed for their war services. The ones that were unlucky had to keep fighting for their

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501 Words | 3 Pages

In the article “Dirty Little Secret” it is stated by the author, Simon Schama, that “To see the Revolutionary war through the eyes of slaves gives a better understanding of why so many of them fought for the crown”(Schama). Schama argues that African American slaves chose the right decision to join British forces subsequently for their freedom and wellbeing. The three main points that will be discussed in this paper include why the slaves did not want to stay on the American side, why they joined the British side, and also what their lives were like on the British side. There was hope for the slaves that one day they would be free in America, but they knew that day was far away.

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Chapter 5 “The Revolutionary Era: Crossroads of Freedom,” This chapter focuses on Revolutionary era and the war between Britain and the colonies. It shed light on the lives of the African Americans during the war and the decisions they made to fight with or against the colonies they were enslaved in. The first important topic is about Thomas Peters fight to get his freedom.

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89 Words | 1 Pages

Colonist Perspective On the evening of March 5, 1770, five innocent civilians were brutally murdered in the streets of Boston at the hands of corrupt British Red Coats. Our brothers and sisters, we peacefully protesting the corrupt, British imposed taxation without our representation. Among those whose lives were taken was Crispus Attucks, a former Black slave. The brutality expressed by the British is foreshadowing for more restrictions and intervention to come. The only way we can defeat British corruption is by coming together as one under this pertinent cause.

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In 1770, Crispus Attucks, a black man, became the first casualty of the American Revolution when he was shot and killed in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Although Attucks was credited as the leader and instigator of the event, debate raged for over as century as to whether he was a hero and a patriot, or a rabble-rousing villain. In the murder trial of the soldiers who fired the fatal shots, John Adams, serving as a lawyer for the crown, reviled the "mad behavior" of Attucks, "whose very looks was enough to terrify any person."

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Horne highlights instances of slave resistance, rebellion, and collaboration with British forces as evidence of African agency and strategic engagement with the revolutionary upheaval. He argues that the rhetoric of liberty and equality espoused by the patriots rang hollow for enslaved Africans, who recognized the contradiction between the revolutionary ideals and the reality of their

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863 Words | 4 Pages

Crispus Attucks was an African-American man killed during the Boston Massacre and was believed to be the first casualty of the American Revolution. Crispus Attucks was an escaped slave of African and Native American descent, but not much else is known about him. He was part of an angry mob that surrounded eight British soldiers on March 5, 1770, outside the Customs House in Boston. The soldiers fired on the crowd and Attucks was killed, along with four others. That’s all definitely known about Attucks is that he was the first to fall during the Boston Massacre.

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They professed to feel betrayed. They were willing to risk their lives for the Union, they said, but not for black freedom.” They believed in the “legacy if 1776”, but that legacy was a white legacy and as soon as that image was broken, it broke their will to

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768 Words | 4 Pages

With the Declaration of Independence, African Americans knew that they deserved much better than what

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Gary Nash, the author of the book, The Forgotten Experience, talks about the arbitrary lifestyle Native Americans and African American faced during the American Revolution, which occurred on April 19, 1775. Many Native American tribes in the east of the Mississippi joined the colonist to fight the war at the “home front” against the British. However, some of the Native Americans took advantage and fought against the colonists by themselves. On the other hand, African American fought the Revolution for freedom. They wanted to escape from being slaves and have equal rights as whites.

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First, they weren’t even able to have an opinion on the Revolutionary War, they would just be on the side their master’s were on. In source two, it says in the first paragraph, “That battle did not matter much, nor, at the end of the war, did it much matter for which side blacks bore arms, at least as it concerned their freedom.” This shows that it didn’t really matter which side the black slaves were on because they didn’t have an opinion really on it, but it had concerned their freedom. Freedom to the slaves would be being a free slave, having basic human rights, and living their own normal life where they are treated like humans. Being free from Britain or winning the war and staying under the rule of the tyrant wasn’t freedom to them.

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668 Words | 3 Pages

During the war, blacks were used as motivation to fight, they were willing to help fight, and they even worked their way into the politics of the post war

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806 Words | 4 Pages

The American Revolution and the American Civil War had the same effect on African Americans: emancipation. My argument is that the Muster Book of Free Blacks represents an early major step in African American liberation from slavery in the United States. To support this argument, we will first examine the text, but then look at three different perspectives on emancipation that can be gleaned from this primary source: American, Black, and British and Nova Scotian. The Muster Book of Free Blacks is a registry for African Americans who were set free to Nova Scotia after the conclusion of the American Revolution. The Muster of Free Blacks records the dates of registry as “…3rd September 1783 to the 24th July 1784” ("Muster Book of Free Blacks.").

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In the revolutionary war slaves and their masters played an important role, which led towards the abolishment of slavery. After years, full of several tensions between the United States and Britain tensions erupted in the war of independence in February 1775, which would last till September 1783 (Conway,1). While the Americans fought for their freedom, the Slaves fought for their freedom as well. “African Americans fought a revolution within a revolution,” as Nash writes about the fight of the slaves. (266).

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In the years of the Civil War, African Americans played an important role in contributing to the Union Army and the confederate army. A great deal of African American men volunteered to join the Union Army but only after they gained freedom did they participate in fighting the war. Besides the Union Army, there was the confederate army which consisted of slave labor whom were forced to aid the confederacy following their masters. Later in the war, the Confederacy ran short on men and were in need to supply soldiers, leaving no choice but to enlist the colored men. Not only were African American men impacted from the war, but African American women also served to supply and aid in the war.

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1768 Words | 8 Pages

Black soldiers served in artillery and infantry and performed all noncombat support functions that sustain an army, as well. Black carpenters, chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, and teamsters also contributed to the war cause. (Freeman1) The North thought of slavery as immoral but they still did not want to fight and die next to Black Soldiers, and Blacks captured as POWs by the Confederate Army was treated far more severely than their White counter

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