Among the other black Minutemen who fought at Concord was Peter Salem, from Framingham, Massachusetts, a slave whose owners had freed him so he could enlist. Two months after the Battle of Concord, Salem was among the two dozen or so blacks to see action, and plenty of it, at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Several early accounts of the battle credited Salem with having fired the shot that killed Royal Marine Major John Pitcairn, who had led British Regulars into battle against the Patriots at Lexington and Concord. As historian Benjamin Quarles pointed out, however, ‘The story that Salem fired the shot that felled…Pitcairn is not easy to substantiate.’ In any event, the freed slave from Framingham appears to have won renown for his marksmanship because his musket, which saw further use at Saratoga and Stony Point, may be seen in a display case, bearing his name, at the Bunker Hill Monument.

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Then there was the other black Salem–Salem Poor. Free, married, and twenty-eight, Salem Poor enlisted in a Massachusetts militia company commanded by Benjamin Ames. Poor was also engaged at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and he, too, seems to have had a keen eye and a steady hand. It is thought that a shot from his musket brought down another British officer, Lt. Col. James Abercrombie. That he distinguished himself is certain; six months after the battle, fourteen Massachusetts officers, all of whom had taken part in the battle, petitioned the Massachusetts General Court to reward Salem Poor. They wrote that he ‘behaved like an Experienced officer, as Well as an Excellent Soldier…to Set forth Particulars of his Conduct Would be Tedious. Wee Would Only begg leave to Say in the Person of this said Negro Centers a Brave & gallant Soldier.’ Whether the General Court rewarded Salem Poor, who went on to fight at Monmouth and White Plains, is not known.

In these early battles–at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill–blacks, both free and slave, fought side by side with white Patriots. A man’s race and social standing were matters of scant concern in such trying times; his readiness to fight was paramount. But, as Quarles noted, ‘within ten months after Lexington and Concord a pattern of exclusion had developed.’ It was during these months that the Continental Army, representing all thirteen colonies, was formed, and Southern sensibilities had to be taken into account. As early as May 20, the Committee of Safety had resolved that only free men would be accepted into the army, and ‘no Slaves…upon any consideration whatever.’ In Southern states particularly there was fear of insurrection–a fear fueled by a rumor that spread like wildfire through North Carolina. The British had decreed that blacks who killed their masters would be granted possession of their master’s plantation. In September, a delegate to the Continental Congress from South Carolina introduced a resolution calling for the discharge of all blacks from the army. The resolution was not accepted. Just two weeks later, however, a council of general officers meeting at headquarters in Cambridge took matters into its own hands and decided, unanimously, not to accept slaves into the army and, by a large majority, not to allow free blacks to serve as soldiers either.

Then in November something happened that made the generals reconsider their policy of exclusion. Anti-British sentiment was almost as strong in Virginia–the home of Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry–as it was in Massachusetts. But while the British presence was concentrated in Massachusetts, the Crown’s representative in Virginia, John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, had a force of only three hundred soldiers, seamen, and Loyalist recruits. Moreover, the commander of British forces, General Thomas Gage, had informed Dunmore that he could not assist him ‘with men, arms or ammunition,’ nor did he have the cash to pay any bills the earl might accrue. Feeling isolated and vulnerable, on November 7, 1775, Dunmore resorted to issuing what was, in effect, an emancipation proclamation, albeit one issued for strictly military purposes. It stated that all able-bodied indentured servants and slaves owned by Virginians who refused ‘to resort to his Majesty’s standard’ would be granted their freedom if they joined his Majesty’s troops ‘as soon as may be.’ Hundreds of slaves, as eager for personal freedom as their masters were for political freedom, began slipping away to join the British at Norfolk. In mid-November, black soldiers took part in a skirmish with the colonial militia at Kemp’s Landing, on the Elizabeth River. The engagement, which ended with the capture of the militia’s two commanding colonels and the flight of their men, marked the beginning of open conflict in Virginia.

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