[2] Robinson's enslaver, Francis De Shields, had him enlist at age 24 and fight in a Virginia Light Infantry Regiment with the promise that he could earn his freedom.

[9][10] General Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was so impressed with his actions that he awarded Robinson a Gold Medal of Valor.

After the Revolutionary War, De Shields reneged on his promise to free Robinson and sold him in New Orleans back into slavery in Louisiana.

[23][24] His cousin was whipped, salted, and put in the stocks, dying from the trauma within a week of being brought to Smith's Second Creek plantation in the Natchez District.

Soon thereafter, Andrew Jackson traveled to Smith's to enlist 500 enslaved men to prepare for the Battle of New Orleans.

After the American victory, soldiers gathered around General Andrew Jackson, and he announced that the enslaved men who had fought would not be freed after all.

According to Robinson in a slave narrative he dictated shortly before the American Civil War, Jackson lectured his fellow white officers on the perpetuation of slavery in America:[25]"Never," said he, "suffer negroes to have arms; if you do, they will take the country.

[25] In concluding this brief history of my life, I think I cannot do it better than by giving some advice to my race of people, since it is right that the young should profit by the experience of their aged fathers.

Had there been less bravery with us, the British would have gained the victory, and in that event they would have set the slaves free; so that I now can see how we, in that war, contributed to fasten our chains tighter.

It is not for me to foretell the end of oppression in this country, but one thing is certain, virtue, sobriety, industry, temperance, economy, education and religion, will fit you for any emergency whatever, and are the best qualifications for free men.

[32] He was the last living African American veteran of the Revolutionary War at the time and the oldest person buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

[38][39][40] Many dignitaries spoke including U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib and Maj. Gen. Leonard Isabelle of the Michigan Air National Guard and Sen. Gary Peters provided a letter that was read.