#July4th is a bittersweet “holiday” for black folks, but it nevertheless belongs to us too. Many of our ancestors waged vicious wars against slavery at home and on battlefields during the Revolution. 1/
Enslaved people heard Euro-descended colonists’ fancy hypocritical words about *their* “enslavement” to Britain and how they wanted *their* liberty and took action to secure their own. 2/
They fought in the American Revolution on both sides. They sued enslavers for their freedom and sometimes won. They petitioned courts for slavery’s abolition and furthered the cause for Northern abolition in the process. 3/
Our contemporary challenges to America to live up to its promises to Black people are extensions of these earlier efforts and the actual battles waged and sometimes won by the approximately 30,000 African-Americans who fought during the American Revolution. 4/
Some Black folks saw the Revolution as a battle for *their* freedom. When the war was over, some of them saw that America wouldn’t be free for them so they bounced with the British when they left. This part of the story is more complicated. (Watch the Book of Negroes and see.) 5/
So on #July4th I honor them. I honor black men like Crispus Attucks, as well as those who fought in the Royal Ethiopian Regiment, Black Pioneers and Guides, Black Brigade, Jersey Shore Volunteers, King's American Dragoons, Jamaica Rangers, and the Mosquito Shore Volunteers. 6/
On this and every #July4th I honor black women like Elizabeth Freeman who sued for her freedom (and won) and Belinda, who petitioned for reparations for her many years of enslavement in Massachusetts and won.
