Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
PART ONE: Introduction Black Americans on the Eve of White Independence
Black Americans and the Coming of the American Revolution
African Americans in the Revolutionary War
Challenging Slavery
Revolutionary Legacies
PART TWO: The Documents Chapter 1: Black Americans and the Coming of the American Revolution, 1750–1775
- Fugitive Slave Advertisements
, 1750–1774 - Briton Hammon, A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings, and Surprising Deliverance, of Briton Hammon, A Negro Man, 1760
- James Otis, The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved, 1764
- Landon Carter, Plantation Diary, March 22, 1770
- Felix, Petition to Governor, Council, and House of Representatives of Massachusetts, January 6, 1773
- Massachusetts African Americans, Petition to Local Representatives, April 20, 1773
- Patrick Henry, Letter to Robert Pleasants, January 18, 1773
- Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, 1773
On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield
On Being Brought from Africa to America
- Phillis Wheatley, Letter to Samsom Occom, February 11, 1774
Chapter 2: African Americans in the Revolutionary War, 1775–1783
- Andrew Estave, Letter in the Virginia Gazette, July 20, 1775
- John Murray, Lord Dunmore, A Proclamation, November 7, 1775
- Wartime Fugitive Slave Advertisements, 1776–1782
- Extract of a Letter from Monmouth County, June 21, 1780
- Sergeant Murphy Steele, Deposition Reporting a Supernatural Encounter, August 16, 1781
- John Trumbull, Battle of Bunker’s Hill, 1786
- Jacob Francis, Revolutionary War Pension Application, 1836
Chapter 3: Challenging Slavery, 1776–1787
- Thomas Jefferson, Original Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence, 1776
- New Hampshire Slaves, Freedom Petition, November 12, 1779
- Free Blacks in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, Petition against Taxation without Representation, February 10, 1780
- William Cushing, Charge to the Jury in the Case of Quok Walker, 1783
- Susan Sedgwick, Elizabeth Freeman, 1811
Chapter 4: Revolutionary Legacies, 1785–1855
- John Marrant, Narrative, July 18, 1785
- Citizens of Halifax County, Virginia, Petition Defending Slavery, November 10, 1785
- Prince Hall and Other African Blacks, Petition to the Massachusetts Legislature for Return to Africa, January 4, 1787
- Free African Society, Charter, April 12, 1787
- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1788
- Rose Fortune, 1780s?
- Benjamin Banneker and Thomas Jefferson, Exchange of Letters, August 19 and 30, 1791
- Saul, Petition to the Virginia State Legislature, October 9, 1792
- David George, An Account of the Life of Mr. David George from Sierra Leone, Africa, Given by Himself, 1793
- Boston King, Memoirs of the Life of Boston King, A Black Preachers, Written by Himself, July 4, 1796
- Freemen from North Carolina, Petition to Congress, January 23, 1797
- Prosser’s Ben, Mr. Price’s John, and Ben Woolfolk, Testimony against Gabriel, October 6, 1800
- Raphaelle Peale, Absalom Jones, 1810
- Paul Cuffee, Memoir of Captain Paul Cuffee, October 1811
- William C. Nell, Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, 1855
APPENDIXES
A Chronology of Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index