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Connecticut
began mobilizing her militia in September 1774 after
learning that the Massachusetts militia had clashed
with British troops sent to enforce the Boston Port
Act of May 1774. By the time that the Continental
Army was disbanded in 1783, Connecticut had furnished
nearly one-half of her total eligible male population
of approximately 66,000 to the Army. Connecticut
men numbering 31,939 enlisted in the Continental
Army. Some men served in the local militia companies
and aboard naval vessels and privateers while others
held civil offices or contributed money and supplies.
In
1774, there were slightly more than 3,500 minority
males living in Connecticut; nearly 2,900 were Blacks,
the balance, Indians. One-third of the total minority
population and one-half of the Indian population
lived in New London County. New London, Hartford,
and Fairfield Counties had the heaviest concentration
of Blacks.
Of
those who had service in the Revolution, about 450
have been identified as being Blacks or Indians.
Blacks and Indians who had common English names
and were not always identified by race on original
records are not now easily distinguished as members
of either minority.
Many
Connecticut Blacks and Indians actively supported
the cause of American Independence. Service of Connecticut
Blacks in the Continental Army in the early years
of the Revolution was limited by legislative acts
of the Connecticut General Assembly and the Continental
Congress. It appears that participation in the Army
by American Indians was less limited. Members of
both minority groups served in the Connecticut Navy
without restriction.
In
March 1775, the Connecticut General Assembly took
action to strengthen the state militia by issuing
new commissions and filling vacancies. As a result
of Connecticut's preparedness, 3,716 men from forty-two
of her towns were ready to march to Massachusetts
when news of the Lexington Alarm on April 19, 1775
was received.
One
of the earliest and strongest supporters of the
Revolution was Connecticut's Royal Governor, Jonathan
Trumbull. He supplied provisions from his own store
to the men from Lebanon who responded to the Lexington
Alarm. Trumbull was the only Royal Governor to support
the Americans. Consequently, he was nicknamed "The
Rebel Governor."
On
April 26, 1775, Governor Trumbull called a special
session of the General Assembly, which passed an
act that began as follows:
An
Act for assembling, equipping etc., a Number of
the Inhabitants of this Colony for the special Defence
and Safety thereof Be it enacted by the Governor,
Council and Representatives, in General Court Assembled,
and by the authority of the same, That one fourth
part of the militia of this Colony be, and it is
hereby, ordered and directed that they be forthwith
inlisted, equipped. accoutred and assembled, for
the special defence and safety of this Colony, to
be led and conducted as the General Assembly shall
order...
Connecticut
law limited Black participation during the first
years of the war. In the fall of 1775, Congress
and George Washington and his generals agreed that
the service of Blacks, especially slaves, be rejected
altogether.
By
the winter of 1775-1776, that policy was found to
be impractical. As a result, Washington wrote Congress
on December11, 1775,
It
has been Presented to me, that the free negroes
who have served in this army are very much dissatisfied
at being discarded. As it is to be apprehended that
they may seek employ in the Ministerial Army, I
have presumed to depart from the resolution respecting
them, and have given license for their being enlisted.
If this is disapproved of by Congress, I will put
a stop to it."
Congress
agreed with Washington and on January 16, 1776 decided,
"'That free negroes who have served faithfully
in the army at Cambridge may be re-enlisted therein,
but no others."" It appears that after
January 1776, Connecticut did allow free blacks
to enlist in the Army as no specific mention is
made of them in later state legislation. Black slave
enlistments continued to be prohibited by the Connecticut
General Assembly. An Act passed in December 1776
requiring that a reserve be formed in every town
excepted the following:
"...members
of the Council, of the House of Representatives
and American Congress, for the time being, the Treasurer
and Secretary of the State, ministers of the gospel,
the president, tutors and students of Yale College
for the time being, and negroes, indians and mulattoes.
..."
By
May 1777, Connecticut was faced with the problem
of meeting her quota for the Army. At that time
a specially appointed legislative committee recommended
that slaves be allowed to enlist. The proposal was
rejected but the General Assembly did pass an act,
which enabled residents of Connecticut to hire Blacks
as substitutes.
David
Griswold of Wethersfield released his slave, Caesar,
in May 1777, on the condition that he serve three
years in the Continental Army.'4 In the same month,
Silas Loomis also of Wethersfield sent a memorial
to the General Assembly regarding his Negro man
Dick, alias Dick Richard, age 23, "who is desirous
of inlistin~ into the Continental Army provided
he can be manumitted or set free at the Expiration
of the Term of Enlistment."' Cases such as
those involving Caesar and Dick set a precedent
for the General Assembly to consider. When it met
in October 1777, the Assembly established a definitive
position on the enlistment of slaves in an act which
read in part:
An
Act in Addition to and Alteration of An Act concerning
Indian, Molatto and Negro Servants and Slaves. Whereas
It stands enacted in said act, that all slaves set
at liberty by their Owners, and all negro, molatto
or Spanish Indians, who are servants to masters
for time, in case they come to want after they shall
be so set at liberty or the time of their said service
be expired, shall be relieved by such owner or master
respectively, their heirs, executors or administrators...
One
slave freed as a result of the Act of October 1777
was Jack Arabas who enlisted from Stratford in October
1777 and served until the end of the war. Jack Arabas
vs. Ivers ultimately resolved the question of manumitting
slaves who had served in the Continental Army. The
master, Ivers permitted his slave, Arabas, to enlist
in the Army. Arabas served throughout the war after
which time Ivers again claimed him. Arabas fled
from his master but was captured and imprisoned
for safekeeping. Jack Arabas filed a habeas corpus
which was granted by the court "upon the ground
that he was a free man, absolutely manumitted from
his master by enlisting and serving in the army."'
In
October 1780, Samuel Hemingway addressed an interesting
petition to the General Assembly. In his petition
Hemingway stated that one of his Negroes, Jeff Sill,
had enlisted in the Continental Army on May 26,
1777 to serve for a period of three years on the
condition that after the three years of service
Sill would return to his master. The memorial further
states, "...Said Servant accordingly inlisted
and went into the Army where he hath ever since
continued and makes a good and faithful Soldier.
And your Memorialist would further inform your Honours
that said servant since his joining the Army is
so pleased with the Service that he hath inlisted
during the war without liberty or permission of
your Memorialist and without clearing any person
from Service. ..." The Memorial goes on to
say that Hemingway would be willing to release Sill
provided he continued in the service and Hemingway
himself would be free of any obligation toward him
at the conclusion of Sill's service. In addition,
Hemingway requested that he be granted relief from
any other military obligation as he had already
hired a substitute and that his slave Azariah Bradley
of New Haven be free from military duty as if he
had also hired a man, that being the aforementioned
Jeff Sill.'
Connecticut
towns as well as the General Assembly manumitted
slaves for Revolutionary War service. The following
item was recorded in Derby,
January
15, 1781, Voted, that the authority and selectmen
be empowered and directed to give certificates to
Capt. Daniel Holbrook and Capt. John Wooster, to
free and emancipate their servants, negro men, on
the condition that the said negro men enlist into
the state regiment to be raised for the defense
of the state, for the term of one year.'
The
exact number of slaves who were manumitted as a
result of their service in the Continental Army
has not been determined. It is possible that many
more names can be found by carefully reading the
records of the individual Connecticut towns.
George
Washington's Army, which was headquartered at White
Plains, New York in August 1778 included 755 Blacks,
of whom 210 were in Connecticut regiments under
the commands of Generals Samuel H. Parsons and Jedidiah
Huntington. Major General Parsons' regiment with
148 Negroes on its rolls had the largest number
of Blacks of any of the regiments at White Plains.
The
black soldiers of Connecticut were generally not
assigned to regiments by color but were integrated
throughout the state's various regiments. There
was, however, one company commanded by Captain David
Humphreys of Derby which was composed primarily
of Black men. The company was stationed at George
Washington's headquarters across the Hudson from
West Point during the winter of 1781. Jack Arabas
and Jeff Sill, mentioned previously, were members
of Humphreys' company.
A
number of Connecticut Blacks received pensions and
bounty land from the federal government. One such
man was Primus Babcock of Preston who "...belonged
to the black regiment so called under the command
of Col. Green(e) (of Rhode Island)... Babcock was
one of nineteen black soldiers whom The Honorable
Calvin Goddard of Norwich claimed to have assisted
in obtaining pensions under the pension Act of 1818.
Goddard stated the following regarding Babcock:
I
cannot refrain from mentioning one aged black man,
Primus Babcock, who proudly presented to me an honorable
discharge from service during the war, dated at
the close of it, wholly in the handwriting of George
Washington. Nor can I forget the expressions of
his feelings, when informed, after his discharge
had been sent to the War Department, that it could
not be returned. At his request it was written for,
as he seemed inclined to spurn the pension and reclaim
the discharge.
In
addition to those Blacks who received bounty land
for military service, several were awarded bounty
land in the Fire Lands of Ohio for losses suffered
when a number of Connecticut towns were burned.
Among them were negroes Syphax of Norwalk, Ned of
Fairfield, Roger of Danbury, and Shoram of Groton.
Connecticut
Blacks served throughout the Revolution from the
Lexington Alarm until the Army was disbanded in
June 1783. Representatives of those Blacks were
Timon Negro from Wethersfield who marched to the
Lexington Alarm in April 1775, and Cash Affrica
who was with the Marquis de Lafayette's troops at
Yorktown in 1781 and remained in the Army until
it was disbanded. Two of Connecticut's Revolutionary
War heroes, Jordan Freeman and Lambo Latham, were
Black men. Both killed British officers before they
themselves were slain at Fort Griswold during the
Battle of Groton Heights September 6, 1781.
Indian
participation in the Revolution was less restricted
by law. Many of Connecticut's Indian Soldiers were
from the Mohegan tribe which resided in New London
County. One Mohegan, John Uncas, enlisted in Colonel
Heman Swift's Regiment in March 1781 and served
until the Army was disbanded in 1783. Both he and
his widow, Martha, received bounty land and were
pensioned. Uncas also was assisted by Calvin Goddard
of Norwich when he applied for a pension.
A
census of the Mohegan tribe taken in 1782 lists
nine Mohegans who were killed during the Revolutionary
War, five of them the sons of the widow Rebecca
Tanner. One of the first members of the tribe to
be killed was Samuel Ashbo who died at thc Battle
of Bunker Hill in June 1775.30 The names of fifteen
other Indians who lost their lives in the Revolution
during the years 1776 and 1778 are recorded in the
town records of Ledyard.
Although
most of the Indians who fought on the side of the
Americans during the Revolution were Mohegans, there
were soldiers from other tribes as well. Among them
are Peter Mohawk of Wethersfield and Simon Hobart,
a Nehantjc Indian from New London.
Other
Indians, such as Reuben Cognohue and Joseph Johnson,
served as messengers on behalf of the State of Connecticut
to the Oneidas. Some Indians suffered for their
support of the Americans. Two Tunxis Indians, Elijah
Wimpsey and Samuel Adams, originally from Farmington,
moved to the Mohawk country but returned to Connecticut
when they were driven out of New York by pro-British
Indians.
Connecticut's
strategic location across the sound from British-controlled
Long Island made it necessary for her to maintain
a strong naval force. As a result, in July 1775,
the Connecticut General Assembly resolved,
That
two vessels of a suitable burthen be immediately
fitted out and armed with a proper number of cannon,
swivel-guns and small arms, and furnished with necessary
warlike stores, and well officered and mann 'd for
the defence of the seacoasts in this Colony,
The
first of those two vessels, the brig Minerva, had
among her crew two Negroes, Peter and Gist. A second
naval vessel, the brig Defence had crew members,
George Negro and Peter Indian. The ship Oliver Cromwell,
one of Connecticut's larger vessels, had a number
of both Blacks and Indians in her crew.
In
addition to the vessels needed to defend the seacoast,
Connecticut also built the galley Trumbull on Lake
Champlain for the use of Benedict Arnold's conirnand
in 1776. A Black man, Peter, is listed on the Trumbull's
roster.
After
Congress approved the use of privateers for naval
service in April 1776, Connecticut began issuing
commissions to such vessels. The names of Negroes
Livy, Josephus and Ham appear on crew lists of some
Connecticut privateers.
Several
Indians were among the workmen employed at New London
in the construction of the Confederacy, a continental
frigate commissioned by Congress. When the frigate
was launched in November 1778, the crew included
Blacks and Indians recruited from New London.
Unlike
the Army, no evidence has been found that Connecticut
placed color restrictions on service in the state's
Navy. This is evidenced in several letters from
Colonel Jedidiah Huntington to his father, Jabez,
regarding a Negro Sam. In a letter dated November
16, 1775, Huntington wrote, "Sam will come
Home at the Expiration of his Term the 6 of Decr.
no Negroes are to be inlisted..." On May 5,
1776, Huntington again wrote to his father regarding
Sam:
I
cannot improve Sam so as to get any thing for his
Service. I should think as he has commenced a Sailor
it will be best to continue him so untill an Opportunity
presents of selling him.
The
last letter from Colonel Huntington to his father
on the subject of Sam, dated June 27, 1776 reads,
'As to Sam, I cannot get him into the Army without
transgressing a Rule of Congress which forbids the
inlisting Negroes unless they have Certificates
from their Masters of their Freedom."
The
Revolutionary War had a profound impact on both
the Black and Indian populations of Connecticut.
It saw the beginnings of the end of slavery for
Blacks, while the already small Indian population,
which suffered a high percentage of casualties,
was seriously diminished.
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