Black Patriot

Attucks was a whaler who was believed to be of mixed Native American and African ancestry, born in or around Framingham, Massachusetts.

[citation needed] After the British started enticing enslaved African Americans to serve or assist their cause in exchange for emancipation, Patriot leaders began to recruit free people of color in New England and other East Coast regions to serve in the Continental Army.

Most of the time, Black Patriot soldiers served as individuals in a variety of predominantly white units of the Continental Army.

William "Billy" Lee was an enslaved valet of George Washington who served in the Continental Army and fought with the general's forces.

Gates is currently working on a project to find all descendants of Black Patriots, who served in the American Revolutionary Continental Army.

On September 8, 2014, the United States House of Representatives passed the joint resolution approving the location in the capital of a memorial to commemorate the more than 5,000 slaves and free Black people who fought for independence in the American Revolution.

[7] The joint resolution would approve the location of a commemorative work to honor the more than 5000 slaves and free black persons who fought in the American Revolution.

Speculative 19th-century portrait of Crispus Attucks , the black American Patriot martyr of the 1770 Boston Massacre
A 19th-century lithograph variation of Paul Revere 's famous engraving of the Boston Massacre . Produced before the American Civil War , this image emphasized Crispus Attucks in the center. He became an important symbol to abolitionists of sacrifice and black freedom. (By John Bufford after William L. Champey, circa 1856) [ 2 ]
1781 drawing, of American soldiers from the Yorktown campaign , showing a black infantryman, on the far left, from the 1st Rhode Island Regiment . This regiment had the largest number of black Patriot soldiers in the Continental Army
This depiction of the 1781 Battle of Cowpens showed an unnamed Patriot black soldier, possibly a slave, on the far left firing his pistol, saving the life of Colonel William Washington , mounted on a white horse in the center; from an 1845 painting by William Ranney