Continental Congress Quotes
… take measures immediately for raising 3,000 able-bodied Negroes.
The New England and Middle Atlantic States had recruited and allowed Negroes to serve in their divisions with excellent results. These two Southern states were suffering badly as a result of the British Military dominance and atrocities. Almost all whites who were patriots were already under arms. Hence the recommendation. Despite their precarious position, the Southern States would not follow the recommendation. Many were convinced that the Blacks would never make good soldiers, and the those Southerners who disagreed were terrified that once armed, the Blacks would never submit to slavery and would support slave insurrections of the Black slaves who were not in the military.
Continental Congress, Resolution Directed to Georgia & South Carolina, 1779
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Negotiations regarding the exchange of prisoners and property. This was his view of his supposed obligation to return Negro slaves who had escaped and gone to the British during the war. The treaty of peace specified that all “property” including slaves, taken by, the British be returned to the Americans. But he and other officers did not always do so as they thought they had higher moral obligations. See {621936} for example.
The perception of the necessity of slavery was evident very early in the South.
Just a month earlier Washington had issued a contradictory order. See {614221}. The Continental Congress, under pressure from the Southerners, compromised.
At this point, Stearns had already organized and trained 3,000 Black Troops from the South. He was a strong advocate of recruiting and enlisting as many slaves as they could. Ironically, the desire to serve in the Army with a weapon, was symbolically a powerful symbol of equality and manliness that it was effective with Northern free Blacks and Southern escaped slaves. Another interesting thing was that Stearns insisted that the ex-slaves not only made better soldiers than the Confederates but that they were better than most Union White troops. That view was not promulgated very publically.
By 1863, Negro troops were being used to fill in gaps in the Union forces. Many union generals resisted having colored troops under their command. Thomas, however, welcomed them, and won several major battles where black soldiers were instrumental in victory.
General Washington and his officers were constantly trying to get around the Southern bloc in the Continental Congress. South Carolina was willing because, perhaps more so than any other region of the country the South Carolina civilian population were suffering from the British military initiatives. See related quotes.
Miller was the first Black American admitted to a Graduate Program—Johns Hopkins—in Mathematics
Washington quickly changed his mind when he realized that there were many Negroes fighting for his army and acquitting themselves very well. The pressure for troops and the English invitation to Negroes to help them and get their freedom, caused Washington to flip-flop on this point to the distress of most of his fellow Southerners. See {614220}.
Despite the critical need of the war, racism was so extensive in the WWII military that Blacks were relegated to menial duty of cooking, truck driving and construction but were actually not allowed to fight at the beginning despite the fact that many had volunteered. Many whites—especially the southerners—were convinced that Negroes could not fight, that they lacked the courage and commitment. The need for troops in the Pacific theater was so great that in the invasion of Saipan that was so difficult, Black troops were committed to the fight and performed brilliantly. The Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Vandergrift was not only the first Marine 4 star general who was on active duty, but he personally was a recipient of the Medal of Honor. When he spoke, all marines and many others in the service listened. This was the break-though. Negroes in combat was no longer some kind of social experiment for most Marines except the most vitriolic rascists.
There was little thought of emancipating slaves or their value to the South by the senior officers of the Union Army at the beginning of the war. The Secretary of War changed that. See {629183}for a typical Union General’s view at the beginning of the war.
What was absurd about this statement is that tens of thousands of men were drafted during the Vietnam war unless they had connections or were not physically fit. The implication that minority youth who did volunteer were not “patriotic” like he was became an insult to many Americans. The Congressman was a “Chicken Hawk”—a politician very aggressive about sending our military into combat, yet who never served in the military themselves. Later, DeLay was convicted and sentenced to jail for money laundering and illegally spending and raising campaign funds. He was also reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee for unethical methods of fund raising for other earlier actions.
When the Confederate Government realized that the Union was planning to arm escaped slaves and induct them into the Union Army, they quickly passed a law that declared any escaped slave who joined the Union Army or wore its uniform was guilty of Treason and would be executed. Most Union Generals one way or another got word to the Confederate Officers that they had better treat all Negro Union Soldiers as prisoners of war. Even President Lincoln warned the South. Butler, however, had a large number of Negro troops in his area and had heard threats of some of the Southerners to execute Black prisoners of war. He had a way of making things very clear, and he was able to prevent murder of any of his Negro troops despite the Treason law.
loyalty oath to the King of England His “Ethiopian Regiment” was the first Black military regiment in North America. Soon after, Rhode Island organized a Black military unit—see {613949}.
He was also himself a ship owner in the slave trade and he was the brother of the leading Rhode Island abolitionist, Moses Brown. See {585793}. Brown became the first American, prosecuted in federal court for illegal slave trading –-- a prosecution brought, in part, by his own brother. He was, however, acquitted.
In early New England the General Court served as both a legislature and a judiciary before separation of powers was introduced. 5 years later the Court banned importing African slaves at all. While slavery was not common in Rhode Island, the laws was not seriously enforced on those who would defy them. It does represent a public anti-slavery sentiment that existed in Early America. It would take 200 years for Rhode Island to finally eliminate all forms of slavery.
The card was issued to all American troops in the theater. Similar versions were distributed to troops in Iraq, and other Arab countries.
Contrast this view with that of Union General Ulysses S. Grant.
There was no conscription during the War of 1812 and the State militias were notoriously unreliable.
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies which met in the British American colonies and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolution. The term "Continental Congress" most specifically refers to the First and Second Congresses of 1774–1781 and may also refer to the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789, which operated as the first national government of the United States until being replaced by the current congress. Thus, the term covers the three congressional bodies of the Thirteen Colonies and the new United States that met between 1774 and 1789.
