In the early morning hours of January 18, 1777, on a hillside redoubt (a small fortification) called ‘Negro Fort,’ just north of the Harlem River at Kings Bridge in what is now the Bronx, around 100 armed black loyalists were attacked by a patriot militia force of 3,500 men under Major General William Heath. The fort’s defenders, former slaves and freemen, were part of a series of British outposts defending the Boston Post Road and bridges onto Manhattan Island (British York Island).
These ‘King’s Men’ were affiliated with the Queen’s Rangers; one of the first partisan, loyalist regiments recruited by British Colonel Robert Rogers.[1] The small garrison was routed and driven back to the nearby main British fortification; Fort Independence. Sources describe the fort defended by 2,000 German Hessians and around 300 Queen’s Rangers;.[2] When the rebel force’s momentum stalled before the fort, Hessians and Queen’s Rangers, including the black loyalists, sallied from the fort and drove off the rebel militia, recapturing their former outposts.
Heath’s failed expedition infuriated General George Washington at Morristown, New Jersey. The supreme commander had hoped to initiate a second front against the British in New York City and deprive them of much needed forage from Westchester County, New York. To make matters worse, Washington had already prematurely informed Congress that the American force had captured all the forts north of Kingsbridge and were assaulting British troops on Manhattan Island. Embarrassed, Washington took his anger out on General Heath. The Massachusetts general was censured and never again placed in command of combat troops.
Who built the fort and who were these armed African American defenders? What became their fate after defending a fortification that has basically been ignored by historical records. There are only brief mentions of a Negro Fort in General Heath’s memoirs, a few other firsthand accounts of its existence, and a period map of the region that places the garrison among other outposts nearby Fort Independence. The answer lies in unique opportunities available to New York and Long Island’s large black population when the British captured the region.
Americans Build the Outposts and Fortifications at Kingsbridge
Even while Washington was focused on driving the British from Boston during the Siege of 1775-76, he knew England’s expulsion was temporary. He expected they would return to invade further south; either at Newport, Rhode Island, New York City, or Charleston, South Carolina. New York City and Charleston were among the most important ports along the colonial coastline and efforts to fortify the cities began in earnest during the spring of 1776. In January, 1776, Washington sent his second in command, Major General Charles Lee first to New York City[3] to survey and lay out plans to build an extensive defensive system. Once that was completed, Lee was dispatched to Charleston, South Carolina, to do the same and take command of the city’s defenses.
After Lee left New York, local patriot residents, along with increased numbers of militia and later Continental troops, began the construction of an extensive line of fortifications from Kingsbridge, throughout Manhattan, and onto Long Island at Brooklyn. Much of the work was done by the large population of African Americans, both slaves and freemen[4]. Besides improving Fort George[5] at the tip of Manhattan, a series of batteries were constructed along the harbor and Hudson and East Rivers. Fort Washington was built along the Hudson River to guard against British ships sailing north with Fort Lee across the river in New Jersey. Redoubts were erected on hilltops and specific homes were fortified as outposts.
Several outposts were constructed in June of 1776, including a small fort, just north of the Harlem River at Kingsbridge and Spuyten Dyvil. The main fortification was Fort Independence, just to the east of Kingsbridge and along the Boston Post Road, the main artery from New York City to Boston. Redoubts were placed on hills along with fortified residences that ran from east to west to the Hudson River; Valentine’s Stone House, Williams’ Bridge, Van Courtland’s House, and what would be called the Negro Fort.
After British General William Howe was driven from Boston on March 17, 1776, Washington began to shift his army south to New York in preparations to defend the city from invasion. Most of the army had arrived by mid-April and were posted from Kingsbridge to Brooklyn, Long Island. Major General William Heath’s Division was assigned to garrison the area of Harlem Heights, to Kingsbridge, and across the Harlem River to include Fort Independence and the nearby outposts, inclusive of what would be called Negro Fort.
British Invade New York
The first British ships began to arrive New York Harbor on July 2, 1776, landing unopposed on Statin Island. Within the next few weeks, hundreds of English sails that included men-of-war, transports, and supply ships dropped anchor off Manhattan and Long Island. On August 27, 1776, British forces landed on Long Island and defeated the American troops stationed on the island. Washington miraculously evacuated his beaten army from the Brooklyn defenses to Manhattan where he waited for General Howe’s next move. On September 15th, after one of the most intense bombardment of the war, Howe invaded upper Manhattan at Kip’s Bay. The militia manning the flimsy defenses were driven back and as Howe advanced across the island, he almost captured General Putnam’s division still stationed in the city.
The Battle of Harlem Heights on September 16th was inconclusive with the Americans not only holding their defensive position, but driving some of the British units back. General Howe, still smarting from experiencing large casualties from a frontal assault on a fixed rebel position, the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, he decided to shift his army north onto Westchester County to trap the American army to the south. On October 12, 1776, Howe loaded transports with four thousand British regulars and sailed into Long Island Sound where he attempted to land at Throngs Neck. Unsuccessful due to Colonel Edward Hand’s rifle enfilading causeways in the wetland conditions, he sailed further north to Pell’s Point.
At the Battle of Pelham, October 18, 1776, General John Glover’s regiment stalled Howe’s advance at New Rochelle, allowing Washington to evacuate Harlem Heights and the outposts at Kingsbridge. Most of the rebel army marched north to White Plains where defenses were dug. When Howe finally arrived at White Plains, he once more tried to flank Washington’s force rather than meet it head on. The Battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776, proved a draw and Washington was able to shift his army further north to dig defenses. Howe decided to give up chasing Washington’s army and marched his army back to New York City. Fort Washington on Manhattan was captured and the outposts and Fort Independence were garrisoned with Hessian troops and Rogers’ partisan loyalists Queen’s Rangers.
African Americans in British Occupied New York City
In the years after the Stamp Act and throughout the late 1760’s and 1770’s the enslaved members of New York were subjected to a constant stream of rhetoric about natural-born rights of every man and the evils of slavery. These bondsmen knew this talk of slavery to England was metaphorical, and symbolic in context, and had nothing to do with chattel slavery. However, it did instill in those laboring under another man’s ownership to take heart amidst a growing condemnation of slavery, particularly among the Quaker communities. By the early 1700’s, many enslaved African Americans looked to England as a possible savior. Lord Mansfield’s June 22, 1772 ruling against the ‘accursed act,’ stating that slavery was so odious that it could not be enforced in England, gave bondsmen hope. Even though this ruling did not extend to British colonies, for many black slaves in America, England did not represent an enslaver as their white masters proclaimed, but freedom.
New York City has had a long history of slavery going back to the early days of the Dutch and New Amsterdam.[6]. When war erupted on April 19, 1775 at the Lexington Common outside of Boston, thousands of enslaved throughout New England and all along the American coast saw a sliver of light pierce their steely subjugation to whites. War upset the smooth-running combination of legal authority and neighborhood custom that upheld the institution of slavery. Chaos shook the mainstays of the social order to create new spaces and new options for oppressed people: the master’s absence; additional opportunities for hiring oneself out given enlistment demands on poor white laborers; the value of a slave’s muscle to both armies.[7]
They were certainly savvy enough to realize that an ardent attachment to King or Congress was unlikely to be of benefit to them. So they cautiously maneuvered among the rival claims of both sides, ever alert for openings that the war itself might furnish for a better life.[8] Like the white population, patriot and loyalist, the black population became mobile. The enslaved had more options than ever before, and they moved in various ways to improve their lot.[9]
Either as runaways or slipping the bonds of servitude during the turmoil surrounding war’s unsettling environment, many bondsmen became independent of the wishes of their masters. It was obvious to the observing slave that his chances for a better life rested with the British. To a white man like Lutheran minister Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, later rebel General Muhlenberg, the belief on the part of the black community that a British victory would mean universal manumission seemed preposterous. But to a black man sizing up the conduct of both sides, it is not at all surprising that he might decide to support the only party that had made a promising offer; providing real opportunities for a black man or woman.[10]
By the time revolution was brewing in England’s American colonies, the city of New York had among the highest ratio per capita of slaves in the American colonies; mainly household slaves and those bonded to merchants and shipping firms. When the British invaded Long Island and Manhattan in the summer of 1776, the African American population, slave and freeman, were caught up in the turmoil of war and refugee movement of both patriot and loyalist. Though many enslaved were involved in the exoduses from the city to safe havens, many more remained to greet the victorious British as they marched the streets of New York City after their September 15, 1776 invasion of Manhattan. Hessian mercenaries from Germany took note of the African-American community not only because it was an interesting novelty, but because it constituted a substantial part of the New York Bay population. According to the 1771 Census, blacks comprised 14 percent of the city’s inhabitants. In the western counties of Long Island, almost a quarter of the population had African ancestry. On Staten Island, one in five faces was black.[11]
Black Loyalists Bare Arms
When the New York City region fell to the British in the fall of 1776, they did not offer universal manumission to bonded slaves.[12] Though they encouraged the slaves of rebels to run from their masters and offer their service to the British, they did not embellish it with an offer of freedom. In fact, many British and Hessian soldiers accepted these former rebel slaves as their own servants. General Howe supported the property rights of Loyalists in town that included enslaved servants. African Americans could wield a pick ax, dig ditches, and load and drive wagons, but their status as a free man was in limbo.
On November 7, 1775, nine months before New York City was invaded, Virginia Royal Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, offered freedom to all “indented servants, negroes, or others,” of rebel masters who joined the British Army. It is believed that up to 2,000 slaves would eventually risk death to escape their masters and slip behind British line. Though Dunmore armed as many as six hundred former slaves in what he termed the Ethiopian Brigade, British military authorities frowned on universally doing so. Historians agree that Dunmore’s back was up against the wall, facing overwhelming numbers of rebel militia and was desperate for men. His decree was most likely designed for practical rather than moral reasons. But was enough to convince slaves throughout the colony that even without guarantees of slavery, a decree of manumission lay in the future.
After British General Howe’s invasion of Long Island and rapid retreat of the Continental Army to Manhattan, many runaway slaves slipped over the East River to cast their lot with the British. Though both sides of the conflict employed African Americans as laborers and draymen, early on, American rebels readily accepted freemen and former slaves among their ranks.[13] England did not follow this practice, filling their regiments of support laborers or ‘pioneers’ with escaped slaves and freemen. Yet this was not true among the first Loyalist armed partisan regiments forming. Though some loyalist regiments were inclusive of whites only and abhorred the act of arming black men, like New York’s De Lancey’s Volunteers, others actively recruited freemen and former slaves.
Major Robert Rogers, of the French and Indian War’s Rogers’ Rangers, had in June of 1776, escaped American imprisonment to Long Island. General Howe commissioned him a Lt. Colonel with approval to raise armed loyalists ‘rangers,’ similar to Rogers’ role during the previous war. Rogers actively set about recruiting his regiment on Long Island accepting both white and black, many refugees from the city and Westchester County to the north, to his new Queens American Rangers.
By the end of August, 1776, and Washington’s defeat at the Battle of Long Island, the Queen’s Rangers numbered just over 900 men in eleven companies. Most were city dwellers and local farmers, not the wilderness pioneers Rogers commanded when he fought the French and Native Americans. Rogers’ composition of his Queen’s Rangers was considered unconventional as it also composed previous deserters and prisoners of war, including black freemen and former slaves. Though criticized by rebel propaganda as ‘hooligans, and ‘plunderers’ whose only motivation to join with Rogers was greed and profiteering, the organization was quickly taught Rogers’ military tactics and became quite proficient as a fighting unit.
Negro Fort and General William Heath’s Attack
The small hillside redoubt constructed by rebel soldiers in June of 1776, and later occupied by the British was located near fortified outposts in a hollow just north of Fort Independence on the Boston Post Road also called the King’s Highway. There are only a few primary source references to Negro Fort; General Heath’s memoirs, a letter from William Duer to General Washington, and twice in the 1840’s McDonald Papers that recorded war recollections from elderly Westchester County residents.
General Washington, from despair in a desperate retreat across New Jersey to Pennsylvania, to triumph with fresh victories at Trenton, December 25, 1776, and Princeton, January 3, 1777, marched the main Continental Army to Morristown, New Jersey for Winter Quarters. He was immediately embroiled in a forage war with British troops stationed in New York and New Jersey. He thought if another front was opened from north of New York City, it would force British General William Howe to draw forces out of New Jersey to New York’s defenses. It would also deprive the British of needed forage and food from Westchester County. Washington ordered General Heath to draw a force of around 5,000 militia from the Hudson Valley Army and move south about fifteen miles and attack the outposts at Kingsbridge.
On the night of January 17, 1777, Heath marched three divisions towards Kingsbridge; Lincoln’s division from Tarrytown on the Albany Road, Generals Wooster and Parsons from New Rochelle and East Chester, and General Scott’s from below White Plains. Heath’s column marched with Scott’s. Just before sunrise, the columns approached several British hillside outposts; Valentine’s Stone House, Williams’ Bridge, Van Courtland’s House, and the Negro Fort. Negro Fort got its name from its garrison, defended by a unit of Black Loyalists in the Queen’s Rangers under Captain Robert Cook. The British were totally surprised by the appearance of a large body of rebels and immediately evacuated with the Americans hot on their heels. Most of the British defenders made it back to Fort Independence. After securing the outposts, Heath’s forces advanced so by afternoon they were approaching Fort Independence.
Over the next ten days, Heath would stumble upon one plan after another to take Fort Independence. His artillery was limited to a couple of field pieces and even after bringing up heavier cannon, they were poorly manned; a howitzer even showed up without ammunition. With the weather turning wet and cold and a report of an outbreak of smallpox, General Heath called off the siege ten days later, on January 29th. During that time, Hessians and Queen’s Rangers sallied from the fort and had recaptured the outposts, including Negro Fort.
General Heath’s Memoirs references the action at what he termed Negro Fort three times:
- Date January 18, 1777. “At this instance, two light-horsemen…came unexpectedly at the descent of a hill, plump upon the head of Wooster’s column…a field piece was discharged at them; one of them was pitched from his horse and taken prisoner, the other galloped back to the fort [shouting the alarm]…This set all the out guards and pickets running to the fort…Those who fled from Valentine’s [fortified home] and the NEGRO FORT were fired at as they ran, but none were killed…one taken prisoner.”[14]
- After taking the outposts that included the Negro Fort, Heath’s men began an ineffectual cannonade with Fort Independence’s cannon on January 19, 1777. “The enemy [Hessians] cannonaded from the fort, and killed one American, as the guards were relieving at the NEGRO FORT.”[15]
- Dated January 25, 1777. Early in the morning, the enemy made a sally towards Delancey’s Mills, where they surprised and routed the guard…a regiment near that place quitted their quarters. Emboldened by this success, about 10 o’clock, A. M. they made a powerful sally towards Valentine’s, instantly driving the guards and pickets from the NEGRO FORT…pushing on with great impetuosity…The retreating guards [rebels] threw themselves into the old redoubt on the north side of the road…on which the enemy lined a strong stone wall…”[16]
The McDonald Papers are a set of hand-written interviews numbering 1,000 pages of 241 Westchester County residents between the ages of 70 and 96. It was compiled by John McDonald between 1844 and 1850. Each interviewee related stories about their experiences or learned information about the American Revolution in Westchester County. The interviews were transcribed into eight volumes by John English. In these are two mentions of Negro Fort:
Dennis Valentine’s was 84 years of age when interviewed by John McDonald making him around 17 years of age during Heath’s 1777 assault on Fort Independence. Speaking in third person, Valentine mentions in his recollections that “Negro fort [was] about a mile and a half from Dennis Valentine’s…so called from a detachment of the Negroes in the British pay, being quartered there, commanded by Captain Cook.” (McDonald Papers 1844, Vol. 1:113.)[17] This confirms that the guards and pickets Heath named in his memoirs in relation to Negro Fort were led by Captain Cook, loyalist member of Rogers’ Queens Rangers; attributed to Nick Dembowski of the Kingsbridge Historical Society, who spent years researching Fort Negro and the region of Kingsbridge, New York during the American Revolution.
Also present in the McDonald Papers was the narrative of Andrew Corsa. Corsa was 88 years old when he was interviewed by John McDonald. He owned a farm in the town of West Farms, New York and died on November 21, 1852. He would have been 21 years of age during the 1777 Heath attack on Negro Fort. Mr. Corsa did not name General Heath’s action, but confirmed that the fort existed by its title and that Captain Cook commanded it. “Negro fort or Cook’s fort stood about two hundred yards south of Isaac Valentine’s stone house on the old Post Road [Boston Post Rd and Kings Highway] on the left as you go to Kingsbridge and on a round hill near the road.”[18] (McDonald Papers 1844, Vol. 1:103).
Lastly, William Duer, New York State Legislator and Continental Congressman who owned vast tracts of land and timber interests in the Hudson Valley, wrote to General Washington on March 2, 1777. He spoke extensively of the forage situation in Westchester County and General Heath’s failure to capture the British forts at Kingsbridge. He mentioned interviewing a deserter from the Queen’s Rangers, loyalist William Fennell, a native of England and recent resident of Maryland. On February 27th, Fennell left his guard post near Kingsbridge and found his way north to the rebel position. He provided information on British forces in the Kingsbridge region; including Negro Fort. By then there were only around 400 Hessians and 110 Queen’s troops posted north of Harlem River. Fennel added that “Captn. [Robert] Cook’s Company of NEGROES are (all but three or four) dead; that the Rangers are sickly.”
General Heath’s mission to set up another front to the north of New York City, thereby drawing off British forces in New Jersey to guard the city’s defenses had stalled out before Fort Independence. General Heath was unaware that the enemy fort had cannon that included a six-pounder. He only brought a few field pieces of artillery in which a later drawn up 24-pounder was mishandled and slipped its carriage, while another Howitzer arrived without ammunition. Unable to batter the fort, eleven days after his siege began, on January 29th, Heath gave up assaulting the British and withdrew all rebel forces north to their posts at New Rochelle, Dobbs Ferry, and later Peekskill, New York, the Hudson Valley Army’s winter quarters.
Washington was furious as earlier reports stated that Heath had successfully captured all fortifications at Kingsbridge, including Fort Independence, and was assaulting British forces on Manhattan. Washington prematurely reported this to Congress, and was embarrassed when he had to later notify Congress of Heath’s failure. He was also upset with Heath for withdrawing completely out of the region. This allowed the British to gain much needed forage of food and livestock from the rich, Westchester County farms. By early February, Washington decided he was done with Heath and censured him; the portly Roxbury, Massachusetts resident never again obtained a combat field command.
Aftermath
By late 1779, the outposts and Fort Independence had been abandoned. Fort Independence was destroyed by British troops who drew back their defenses onto Manhattan Island. In what is now the Boro of West Bronx, historians Lloyd Ultan and John McNamara wrote in 1974 that the Negro Fort was sited on what is now 186 St. George’s Crescent. The fort was in an area formerly covered by a house belonging to John Corsa by at least the 1840s, and which stood until just after the turn of the twentieth century. Mid-twentieth century pictures show a petrol station where the former fort sat. Today, the site is covered almost entirely by multiple-story apartment buildings with basements, suggesting that the small, earthen “Negro Fort” itself has been obliterated.
In 1775, Washington was adamant that no new black soldiers be recruited. His stance changed over the course of the war, as more black soldiers filled the ranks of rebel regiments. The American Revolution was the last war until the Korean War, nearly two hundred years later, that Blacks were not segregated into their own units; the 1st Rhode Island in 1778 became the first combat black regiment – though still infused with some white soldiers. So many black soldiers were present among America’s ranks that during the winter camp at Valley Forge, 1777-1778, when many white soldiers were furloughed home, blacks remained so that nearly 20% of those facing General Washington at assembly were black.
The British were opposite the Americans; whereas as the war progressed, they removed black soldiers from their partisan regiments. Lord Dunmore’s 1775 Ethiopian Regiment was dissolved when His Lordship was driven out of Virginia and most of the original black soldiers succumbed to disease or were released to serve as laborers. So too, all of the original loyal partisan regiments were purged of armed black soldiers. By early 1777, in the interest of respectability, “Negroes, Mulattoes, and other improper persons” were no longer allowed to join the ranks of loyal partisans. British regular units did not have black soldiers in their ranks. However, German Hessian and Brunswick regiments did allow some blacks to bear arms.. The only role black recruits served were in subserviate and support units. These regiments, with white officers, like the Black Pioneers[19] headed by Scotsman Captain Allan Stewart, performed menial tasks, freeing up white troops for more combat roles.
Of those blacks who served in the Queen’s Rangers, the first step of reforming the corps was to remove Lt. Colonel Robert Rogers as its commander on January 30, 1777. This after Rogers’ initial poor performance at the Battle of Mamaroneck, October 16, 1776, where he had failed to set proper pickets and was surprised by an American force. Though Rogers rallied his men and held his ground, he was fiercely criticized by his critics and accused of being drunk at the time of battle. With Rogers gone, Major Christopher French of the British 22nd Regiment of Foot was given command of the rangers. French was ordered to report directly to the newly appointed Inspector General of Provincial Forces, Lt. Colonel Alexander Innes.[20]
Innes examined the accounts of the Queen’s Rangers and for the next two months, did an extensive survey of all its records both financial and conduct of the officers. By March of 1777, he began molding the Rangers, as well as other Partisan Loyal units into the image as regular British corps. With British Supreme Commander General William Howe’s approval, he ordered all the corps to discharge any “blacks, mulattoes, Indians, sailors, or other improper persons.” Only black drummers, trumpeters, and musicians were allowed in the future ranks of partisan corps. Colonel John Graves Simcoe was given command of the Queen’s Rangers on October 18, 1777. Simcoe would go on to forge the Rangers in line with Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s Partisan Legion, making his mark in both northern and southern theatres of the war.
Proposed Plaque
The Horn/Saunders 2009 archaeological study of the site recommended placing a plaque commemorating the Negro Fort and its historical significance. There was a proposal to have the Landmarks Preservation Commission investigate the site further and potentially install a plaque to honor the fort and its role in history. While other cities, like Tallahassee, Florida, have historical markers or sites related to the Negro Fort of 1816, at the moment, there is no information as to a plaque specifically for the Negro Fort located on 186 St. George’s Crescent, West Bronx.
If you would like to read more on African Americans role in the war and or partisan regiments for both British and Patriot forces, we recommend the following books:
Of Similar Interest on Revolutionary War Journal
Resource
Beekman, Daniel. “Project Could Disturb Negro Fort.” June 16, 2009. Bronx Times.
Braisted, Todd W. Turn to a Historian. “Simcoe Takes Command! Reforming the Queen’s Rangers in 1777. ” May 10, 2015.
Dembowski, Nick. “Mystery of the Negro Fort.” June 20, 2023. Kingsbridge Historical Society.
Duer, William. William Duer to George Washington, 2 March 1777. Founders Online .
Horn, Julie Abell, Cece Saunders. Archaeological Documentary Study 186 St. George’s Crescent Block 3313, Lot 12 Bronx, New York. Historical Perspectives. October 2009.
Lanning, Michael Lee. African Americans in the Revolutionary War. 2000: Citadel Press, New York, NY.
McDonald, John. “The McDonald Papers 1844-1850.” Westchester Historical Society. Virtual Archives. and the McDonald Interviewees, Westchester County Historical Society.
Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution. 1961: University of North Carolina Press, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
Van Buskirk, Judith. “Crossing the Lines: African-Americans in the New York City Region during the British Occupation, 1776-1783.” Pennsylvania History.
Endnotes
[1] Colonel Robert Rogers was the renowned French and Indian war leader of Rogers Rangers. At the start of the American Revolution, he offered his service to the rebellious Americans. By then he had crossed many influential people, was considered unreputable, and was an alcoholic. He was arrested, but escaped to the British. He recruited and organized a loyalist regiment on Long Island called Queen’s Rangers. Rogers was a competent military officer and trained his men as he did with his former Rogers’ Rangers. He accepted men from all walks of life, including many African Americans, both freemen and former slaves. He led the unit until January 29, 1777. He was not replaced by Colonel John Graves Simcoe who did not take command of the rangers until October 15, 1777.
[2] A deserter, William Fennel of England, and recent resident of Maryland, left his post at Kingsbridge on February 27, 1777, a month after General Heath’s assault. He said that the British outposts and forts in the region had been reduced to only 410 Hessians and 110 Queen’s Rangers; with units sickly and suffering fatalities.
[3] Lee arrived in New York City on February 4, 1776. He surveyed the region laying plans for fortifications from Kingsbridge, Manhattan Island including the city, and across the East River to Brooklyn.
[4] At the start of the American Revolution, New York City had the highest number of slaves per capita of the American colonies. And further north, Rhode Island was the center of the slave trade from West Africa through the Caribbean.
[5] Fort George was previously Fort Amsterdam under Dutch rule. It had been allowed to fall into some ruin by 1776, and was improved to face an assault by sea with an added battery below its walls. The fort is gone but the area is called battery park.
[6] The first slaves arrived in 1626; eleven Africans from Congo, Angola, and the island of Sao Tome.
[7] Bushkirk, pg. 75.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid. pg. 76.
[11] Ibid.
[12] The British issued no formal proclamations granting refuge and stipulation for freedom to runaway slaves until 1778 and 1779.
[13] When Washington took over reins of the newly formed Continental Army outside of Boston, he ardently refused to accept any more black soldiers among the regiments forming the Siege of Boston. He would later soften his stance, especially after Valley Forge when officers of several states pressured to reach their recruitment requirements, particularly Rhode Island, sought freemen and former slaves to fill their coffers.
[14] Heath Memoirs, pg. 100.
[15] Ibid, pg. 101.
[16] Ibid, pg. 103
[17] Dembowski, Mystery of Fort Negro.
[18] Ibid.
[19] The Americans also had black regiments that basically served in support roles. Bucks of America was a black regiment stationed in Boston that basically cleaned the city’s streets and acted in otherwise mundane roles for the war’s duration.
[20] Colonel Alexander Innes would serve in the Southern Theatre as commander of a corps of American Volunteer Provincial regulars. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Musgrove Mill. He is last listed historically as receiving half pay in 1802, indicating he survived his wounds.