Slavery+During+the+Revolutionary+War

During the Revolutionary War, George Washington Refused to recruit black slaves. However, the British, in 1775, issued a proclamation stating that slaves belonging to rebels could fight for the British and be freed for their service. After this proclamation was issued many southern slaves began to run away. Although, when the Rebels were in need, George Washington came around and began to recruit black soldiers as well. By the time the war was over 5000 black soldiers fought in the Revolutionary War, for every state except for Georgia and South Carolina. media type="youtube" key="ndSrj7xg3kE" height="344" width="425" Video Clip Summarizing Black Soldiers in Revolutionary War
 * Slaves fought in the war...**

"Crispus Attucks, one of the first men to die for American freedom, was a fugitive slave who had escaped from his master and had worked for twenty years as a merchant seaman. When Samuel Adams, prominent leader of the struggle against British domination of the American colonies, called upon the dock workers and seamen in the port of Boston to demonstrate against the British troops guarding the customs commissioners, Crispus Attucks responded to the plea. Aroused by Adams' exhortations, a group of 40 to 50 patriots, armed with clubs, sticks and snowballs, approached the British soldiers. Attucks was apparently in the front of the line of the aroused citizens, urging them on. Suddenly there was a terse order--"Fire!" The British troops responded with a barrage of rifle fire.

Crispus Attucks was the first to fall in the celebrated "Boston Massacre" of 1770. Four other Americans died that night from the action. Samuel Adams used the incident to incite the colonists to further rebellion. Although only five people were killed, Adams termed it a "massacre" of innocent citizens by the tyrannical mother country. Paul Revere published a poem and a drawing of this famous incident in the Boston Gazette on March 12, 1770. Writers who omit Crispus Attucks' name from the accounts of the American revolution might as well dismiss the "Boston Massacre" as an irrelevant incident in the struggle for American independence."


 * The Boston Massacre:** ** For more about the Boston Massacre - **  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Massacre
 * A picture of Crispus Attucks**

For more about Crispus Attucks- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p24.html http://www.africawithin.com/bios/crispus_attucks.htm In the summer of 1781, a young enslaved man named James Armistead took a great risk for freedom. Armistead lived in Virginia, where American troops under General Lafayette were facing British troops under General Cornwallis. Lafayette needed spies to find out where Cornwallis would move his army next. With the permission of his slaveholder, Armistead volunteered to be a spy. Armistead got work in a British camp as a forager, a person who gathers food from the countryside. His job allowed him to move freely between the British and American camps. The British grew to trust him so much that they asked him to spy on the Americans! As a double agent, Armistead gave useful information to Lafayette while giving false information to the British. His activities contributed to the British defeat at Yorktown.
 * Slaves spied...**

    **For more about James Ar__mistead-__** [|**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Armistead__**] __Rachel Revere__ __ gave this letter and some money to a friend to deliver to her husband Paul Revere after his "Midnight Ride." Rachel didn't know that her friend was a British spy! He delivered the letter to the British and pocketed the money.
 * A picture of James Armistead. **



This is what the letter said... "My Dear by Doctor Church I send a hundred & twenty five pounds / and beg you will take the best care of yourself and not / attempt coming in to this town again and if I have an / opportunity of coming or sending out anything or / any of the Children I shall do it pray keep up / your spirits and trust your self and us in the hands / of a good God who will take care of us tis all my / Dependance for vain is the help of man aduie my / Love from your /affectionate R. Revere"