Black Patriot (American Revolution)

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A Black Patriot was an African American who remained loyal to the American side during the Revolutionary War. Black Patriots were the opposite of Black Loyalists who were African Americans who took up the British offer of freedom and took refuge behind the Redcoat ranks. Black Patriots includes those (but is not limited to) those 5000 African Americans or more who fought on the Continental Army during the war.

[edit] Blacks who served in the Continental Army

After the British started recruiting African Americans to start serving or assisting the British cause on the promise of freedom, Americans began to recruit free blacks in the New England and the East Coast to serve in the army.

[edit] Descendants of Black Patriots

Famed African American, Harvard scholar and professor Henry Louis Gates is descended from John Redman, a Free Negro who served in the Continental Army. Professor Gates is currently working on a project to find all descendants of Black Patriots who served in the American Revolutionary Continental Army.

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