servant of Lieutenant Colonel William Washington (1752–1810), hero of the Battle of Cowpens in 1781, is a figure largely lost to history, known exclusively for a single act of heroism for which he has been sometimes celebrated as an early black American patriot and hero of the Revolutionary War.
Though slavery had been slow to find a foothold in Great Britain's New World holdings, by 1776 the practice had become widespread and existed in all thirteen colonies Despite this and despite the paradox of slaves who were noncitizens fighting in a war for national independence black people were quick to join the national debate about the direction in which Americans ought to go Sensing advantage the British sought to exploit this moment by offering freedom to the slaves of the rebels in the southern colonies hoping to arouse fears among slaveholders of slave revolts Thousands of ...
