Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter: A Dispute about Black Soldiers in the Revolutionary War

"A Dispute about Black Soldiers in the Revolutionary War

The New York Times has an interesting op-ed story by Maurice A. Barboza and Gary B. Nash that talks about black Americans in the Revolutionary War and their recognition (or lack of recognition) by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In 1994 the D.A.R. settled a lawsuit involving discrimination. As part of the settlement, the D.A.R. was to identify every African-American soldier who served in the Revolutionary War. The patriotic organization was to publish the names they had and to do research to identify more black soldiers, those who were somewhere, undiscovered, in historical records.

By early 2000, six years after the settlement agreement, the names of only 1,656 black patriots had been published in 11 D.A.R.-issued pamphlets. Yet some historians estimate 5,000 African-Americans served in the Revolutionary War. The organization's own genealogist, James Dent Walker, said estimates were 'deceptively low' and that 'no one took the time to examine the records.'


The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America