The unrecognized minorities during the Revolutionary War
There were many people who participated in the revolution, but many historians tend not to include them. Some examples of these minorities are women, slaves, and Native Americans.
Women in the Revolutionary War
Women played an important role in the revolution. Some women went to the military camps to help feed and cure the soldiers. Other women took charge of the farms, shops and other businesses while their husbands were away. Although they were not allowed to fight some helped load the cannons, but there were some women who fought. Although they contributed in many way they did not get the right to vote or the freedom or equality the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution preached of.
Deborah Sampson enlisted in the regiment as Robert Shurleff. Since she was a very strong woman, she performed all the "manly" duties like any other male (picture of her on the left).
Another female soldier was Ann (or Nancy) Bailey of Boston who enlisted in 1777 under the alias Sam Gay and was promoted to Corporal before her true identity was discovered just a few weeks later, resulting in her arrest and imprisonment.
After her release, Bailey signed up again and served as a soldier for a few weeks before she was discovered and jailed again, according to the book The Revolutionary War.
Spies
Many women also served as spies during the American Revolution, although it is not known how many. According to the National Women’s History Museum, most of these female spies worked as cooks and maids for the British and American military camps where they eavesdropped on conversations about troop movements, military plans, supply shortages and deliveries.
Since the war was fought on farms, city streets and the front yards of many American’s homes, these spies easily carried the messages and supplies they gathered to neighboring houses and farms without detection. Not much is known about the women spies in Massachusetts since the American army didn’t have a central spy system during the Siege of Boston like it did when the war later moved on to New York. There, the army set up the Culper Spy Ring and even devised the code name “355” specifically for women or women spies working within the ring.
One famous female revolutionary spy was Hannah Blair, a Quaker from North Carolina. Blair had a farm where she would hide and protect patriots, supplied food and medical help to soldiers hiding in the woods from loyalist raiders, mended uniforms and carried secret messages. When loyalists in the area discovered what she was doing, they burned her farm down. Fortunately, Congress compensated her for her loss after the war by issuing her a pension for her service.
These roles are just some of the many ways women participated in the Revolutionary War. Either as nurses, maids, spies or soldiers, these women stepped out of the safety and security of their traditional roles in society and risked their lives to serve their country. While some of them were recognized and rewarded for their sacrifices with military pensions and pay, many were not. A few of them, such as Deborah Sampson, even published memoirs about their activities during the war, yet most of these women’s stories remain untold.
African-Americans in the Revolutionary War
By 1775 over a half-million African Americans, most of them enslaved, were living in the 13 colonies. Early in the 18th century a few New England ministers and conscientious Quakers, such as George Keith and John Woolman, had questioned the morality of slavery, but they were largely ignored. By the 1760s, however, as the colonists began to speak out against British tyranny, more Americans pointed out the obvious contradiction between advocating liberty and owning slaves. In 1774 Abigail Adams wrote, “it always appeared a most iniquitious scheme to me to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.”
Widespread talk of liberty gave thousands of slaves high expectations, and many were ready to fight for a democratic revolution that might offer them freedom. In 1775 at least 10 to 15 black soldiers, including some slaves, fought against the British at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. Two of these men, Salem Poor and Peter Salem, earned special distinction for their bravery. By 1776, however, it had become clear that the revolutionary rhetoric of the founding fathers did not include enslaved blacks. The Declaration of Independence promised liberty for all men but failed to put an end to slavery; and although they had proved themselves in battle, the Continental Congress adopted a policy of excluding black soldiers from the army.
In spite of these discouragements, many free and enslaved African Americans in New England were willing to take up arms against the British. Soon states found it increasingly difficult to fill their enlistment quotas, they began to turn to this untapped pool of manpower. Eventually every state above the Potomac River recruited slaves for military service, usually in exchange for their freedom. By the end of the war from 5,000 to 8,000 blacks had served the American cause in some capacity, either on the battlefield, behind the lines in noncombatant roles, or on the seas. By 1777 some states began enacting laws that encouraged white owners to give slaves for the army in return for their enlistment bounty, or allowing masters to use slaves as substitutes when they or their sons were drafted. In the south the idea of arming slaves for military service met with such opposition that only free blacks were normally allowed to enlist in the army.
Black participation in the Revolution, however, was not limited to supporting the American cause, and either voluntarily or under duress thousands also fought for the British. Enslaved blacks made their own assessment of the conflict and supported the side that offered the best opportunity to escape bondage. Most British officials were reluctant to arm blacks, but as early as 1775, Virginia’s royal governor, Lord Dunmore, established an all-black “Ethiopian Regiment” composed of runaway slaves. By promising them freedom, Dunmore enticed over 800 slaves to escape from “rebel” masters. Whenever they could, enslaved blacks continued to join him until he was defeated and forced to leave Virginia in 1776. Dunmore’s innovative strategy met with disfavor in England, but to many blacks the British army came to represent liberation.
Saul Matthews—Matthews was enslaved when he enlisted as a soldier under Colonel Josiah Parker, a commander in the Virginia militia. In 1781, British general Lord Cornwallis and his troops occupied Portsmouth, Virginia. Parker sent Saul into British camps several times on spying missions. Saul faced great danger but always returned with important information about British troop positions and movements. Saul was praised by leaders such as General Nathanael Greene and Baron Friedrich von Steuben. Yet, after the war, he was returned to slavery for nearly ten years. In 1792, he successfully petitioned the Virginia General Assembly for his freedom.
Native Americans during the Revolutionary War
“The Disturbances in America give great trouble to all our Nations”: Mohawk Joseph Brant Comes to London to See the King, 1776
Joseph Brant or Thayendanegea was a Mohawk war chief, interpreter, statesmen, and British military leader. He studied at Eleazer Wheelock’s Indian Charity School in Connecticut and became an ally of Sir William Johnson, superintendent for Indian Affairs; Johnson married Joseph’s sister, Molly. With the onset of the Revolutionary crisis, Native Americans, like other residents of North America, had to choose the loyalist or patriot cause—or try to maintain a neutral stance. The Iroquois Confederacy divided but Brant and his sister led the Mohawks and most Iroquois nations into an alliance with the British. When Brant joined the new Indian Superintendent Guy Johnson in London in 1776; he became a celebrity, had his portrait painted, and met the King and Queen. But Brant had serious business too. He made clear his allegiance to the Crown but also indicated that Native Americans had distinctive issues all their own in trying to hold on to their homelands as Brant indicates in this letter to Secretary of State Lord George Germain. A decade later he would return to seek British support against encroachments on Iroquois lands by the victorious Americans.
“Brother Gorah, We have cross’d the great Lake and come to this kingdom with our Superintendent, Col. Johnson, from our Confederacy the Six Nations and their allies, that we might see our Father, the Great King, and joyn in informing him, his Councillors and wise men, of the good intentions of the Indians our brethren, and of their attachment to His Majesty and his Government. Brother. The Disturbances in America give great trouble to all our Nations, as many strange stories have been told to us by the people of that country. The Six Nations who always loved the king, sent a number of their Chiefs and Warriors with their Superintendent to Canada last summer, where they engaged their allies to joyn with them in the defense of that country, and when it was invaded by the New England people they alone defeated them. Brother. In that engagement we had several of our best Warriors killed and wounded, and the Indians think it very hard they should have been so deceived by the White people in that country, the enemy returning in great numbers, and no White people supporting the Indians, they were obliged to return to their villages and sit still. We now Brother hope to see these bad children chastised, and that we may be enabled to tell the Indians who have always been faithfull and ready to assist the King, what his Majesty intends. Brother. The Mohocks [Mohawks] our particular nation, have on all occasions shewn their zeal and loyalty to the Great King; yet they have been very badly treated by the people in that country [the 13 Colonies].”