Defenders of Liberty: African Americans in the Revolutionary War [Hardcover]

Michael Lee Lanning Lt. Col (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

A noted military historian reveals the critical and heroic role African Americans played in the American Revolution, the last war to use integrated units until the Korean Conflict. of illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A thorough, long-overdue study of black Americans contributions during the war of independence. Veteran military historian Lanning (The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell, 1997, etc.) notes that this was a difficult book to research because the victors were not inclined to record the heroism of these invisible men who fought and fell alongside white patriots. Archival evidence is rare for a population kept illiterate, and the earliest attempt at such a history (in 1855) was an effort by its black author ``to promote his race'' and emancipation. Lanning fills in many unknown details about the defiant fugitive slave who instigated and was the first victim of the Boston Massacre, blacks who fought with the Minutemen at Lexington, and Battle of Bunker Hill hero Peter Salem, who was introduced to General Washington as ``the man who shot [British commander] Pitcairn.'' Lanning identifies Salem as one of two black rebels painted by eyewitness John Trumbull, whose work hangs in the US Capitol rotunda. While many slaves, free men, and escapees enlisted, they were often relegated to noncombat roles or uncounted among those who fell on the battlefield. Many thousands of African-Americans, including sailors under John Paul Jones and some of the first marines, fought for a country that then took its time offering liberty to all. Some British loyalist units did promise freedom, and so an entire Ethiopian Regiment wore red coats. Bowing to pressure from southerners, Washington officially-opposed enlisting blacks, but Lanning documents that undermanned militias like Rhode Islands were the first to ignore this decree and ``to recruit an all-black battalion. An important piece of American and African-American history, anticipating the Civil War and todays large minority presence in the military. (8 pages illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Citadel; First Edition edition (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559725133
• ISBN-13: 978-1559725132
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,558,308 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)