Battle between Continental Ship Bonhomme Richard and HMS Serapis 23 September 1779 by Thomas Mitchell This post is a synopsis of an article I wrote which appeared in the MAGAZINE OF VIRGINIA GENEALOGY, Volume 59, Number 2, a publication of the Virginia Genealogical Society.
Much has been written of the important role that black soldiers played in the Revolutionary War; comparatively little has been published about the role of black men in the naval service. Prior to the Revolution, the service of people of color in the military forces of Virginia was limited by an Act passed by the General Assembly to non-armed, servile roles; “Be it further enacted . . . that all such mulattos, negroes and Indians . . . shall appear without arms, and may be employed as drummers, trumpeters or pioneers, or in such other servile labor as they shall be directed to perform.” It is against this backdrop of oppression that a handful of Black men rose to take on the roles and responsibilities of officers within the Virginia State Navy, albeit without receiving commissions or the formal recognition of their counterparts. By the time the peace was declared in 1783, Virginia had seen at least 420 free Black men and an undocumented number of slaves join its military forces and fight in the Revolutionary War. More than 100 served in the Virginia State Navy. As December 1775 drew to a close, General Washington took a stance against the exclusionary rules set out by Congress. In his General Orders of December 30th, Washington gave his generals explicit permission to enlist free black men; “As the General is informed, that Numbers of Free Negroes are desirous of inlisting, he gives leave to the recruiting Officers, to entertain them, and promises to lay the matter before the Congress, who he doubts not will approve of it.” The very next day, in his letter to the President of Congress, John Hancock, Washington threw his full support behind the policy of enlisting free blacks. In his own words; “It has been represented to me, that the free negroes, who have served in this army, are very much dissatisfied at being discarded. As it is to be apprehended, that they may seek employ in the ministerial army, I have presumed to depart from the resolution respecting them, and have given license for their being enlisted.” Congress agreed to compromise on the issue, resolving on January 16th “that the free negroes who have served faithfully in the army at Cambridge, may be re-inlisted therein, but no others.” The Virginia Navy recognized both commissioned and non-commissioned officers among their ranks. In October 1780, the Virginia General Assembly defined the pay of each of the officers within her state navy; naming each officer’s rank together with the pay that rank was to receive. The officer ranks in the Virginia State Navy - amongst others - included boatswain, boatswain’s mate, gunner, gunner’s mate, and pilot. Each of these officers received higher pay, larger rations of sugar and tea, and significantly larger land warrants than the enlisted men. The Virginia navy eventually grew to well over a hundred officers and more than sixty vessels, barges, brigs, galleys, pilot boats, schooners, and sloops, each of which was armed, the largest carrying thirty-two guns. The crews of these ships fluctuated greatly in number; from only a handful of men on a small barge to more than a hundred seamen manning a large galley. Notwithstanding the prohibition against enslaved men serving in the military, slaves did find their way aboard many of the ships of the State Navy. As many of Virginia’s slaves and free Black men had valuable experience navigating the Chesapeake Bay and inland waterways, they were ideal candidates for service on the vessels of the Virginia Navy. General Washington himself was cognisant of the important role that Black pilots played in Virginia, even going so far as to arrange payment for them at a time when government funding was critically short. In his July 1779 letter to Major Henry Lee Jr., Washington confirmed “I have granted a Warrant for the 1000 Dolls. promised the negro pilote . . .”. Although personally recognized by General Washington, these pilots and other Black men filling the roles of officers in the Virginia Navy often did so without commissions or other official recognition of rank. In total, at least 140 Black men served in the Virginia Navy during the Revolutionary War. Of these, a handful of men are known to have taken on the responsibilities and executed the duties of naval officers. Among others, these officers include: James Thomas, Boatswains’ Mate James Thomas of Norfolk County served in the Virginia Navy throughout the Revolutionary War. In March 1777 he was recorded aboard the galley Safeguard serving as a boatswain’s mate. John Laws, Boatswain’s Mate John Laws was one of three bothers, all free black men of Northumberland County. He entered the Virginia Navy prior to 16 July 1776, when he was listed on the payroll of the ship Liberty. Timothy Laws, Gunner Timothy Laws, a brother of the John Laws above, was a free Black man of Northumberland County. Timothy served two enlistments in the Virginia State Navy; one prior to 1779 and again when he was recorded as a gunner about the ship Tempest. James Sorrell, Gunner’s Mate James Sorrell was a free black man from Northumberland County who enlisted and served as a gunner’s mate aboard the galley ship Hero, and later aboard the Galley Protector. Despite his role and responsibilities as an officer, upon discharge he was treated as an enlisted man. Caesar Terrant/Tarrant, Pilot Caesar Tarrant piloted armed vessels throughout the conflict. He may have been the slave named Caesar who in 1775 was on board the Molly; he later served as a pilot on the Patriot. He is one of the few Black men who was rewarded by the Virginia General Assembly for his service. Cuffee (Cuffy), Pilot Cuffee lived in bondage and died in 1781 of injuries received in the line of duty. During the Revolution, Cuffee was a pilot on the Row Galley commanded by Capt. Richard Barron and later possibly aboard the Patriot and/or the Jefferson. Minny, Pilot A slave working in the Tidewater basin, Minny was an early casualty of the war. On 21 April 1776 an enemy ship came up river and captured a schooner. Patriots “engaged her at close quarters for at least 15 or 20 minutes, with small-arms, during which a valuable negro man, a pilot on board Mr. Walker’s vessel, was shot through the head…”. In November 1783, Virginia did take steps to emancipate some of its black veterans, however the General Assembly addressed only slaves who were enlisted into the army as substitutes for free men, and not those who served in the navy. It would not be until the War of 1812 that Commodore Isaac Chauncy took a more formal stand against racism in the navy, writing of his nearly fifty African-American shipmates: “To my knowledge a part of them are not surpassed by any seamen we have in the fleet; and I have yet to learn that the color of the skin, or the cut and trimmings of the coat, can affect a man's qualifications or usefulness.”
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Michael WoodHistorical milestones in our fight for liberty 1765-1783 Archives
February 2022
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