The Forgotten Experience Summary

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. Nash mentions in his writing that, “What has been largely lost in our recording of American history is the fact that for many of the people of North America the

In the North about 2% of people were slaves or personal servants; while on other hand about 25% of people were slaves who worked on farms and plantations. One of the famous patriots Nash mentions in his writing is Thomas Peters who “was an Egba of the Yoruba tribe, living in what is now Nigeria and known, of course, by a different name. But a year later he was in the New World, having been kidnapped by slave traders, carried across the Atlantic, and sold at auction in French Louisiana. Peters lost not only is Egba name and his family and friends but also his liberty, his dreams of happiness, and very nearly his life.” (Nash 6). After the British and French war, Peters’s family, hundred members of the Black Guides and Pioneers evacuated from New York to Nova Scotia. However, “in Nova Scotia the dream of life, liberty, and happiness became a nightmare. Some 3,000 ex-slaves found that they were segregated in impoverished villages, given small scraps of often untillable land, desprived of rights normally extended to British subjects, and reduced to peonage by a white population whose racism was as congealed as the frozen winter soil of Nova Scotia.” (Nash 7). At this new place, African Americans were treated really badly. The whites would call out African Americans by saying racist things and not accept them more than slaves. Also, they were beaten by the British soldiers. Along with that, the British soldiers “burned and looted, and pulled down the houses of free blacks who underbid their labor in the area.” (Nash