Nearly 200 communities will be asked in coming weeks to adopt resolutions sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based Liberty Fund DC recognizing the role played by black soldiers and sailors battling the British in the nation’s war for independence.
Joseph Carvalho SPRINGFIELD – Elected officials across Greater Springfield will get a chance to honor the 1,500 black soldiers from Massachusetts who fought in the Revolutionary War.
Nearly 200 communities will be asked in coming weeks to adopt resolutions sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based Liberty Fund DC recognizing the role played by black soldiers and sailors battling the British in the nation’s war for independence.
Those communities – including Springfield, West Springfield and Westfield – had soldiers whose participation in the six-year war has been documented, according to Maurice Barboza, the Plainfield, Conn., native leading the campaign.
As part of the campaign, the group is also seeking support for a citizen-funded memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring the estimated 5,000 to 10,000 black soldiers who fought for the 13 colonies. A bill establishing the memorial was introduced this month by U.S. Sens. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
Researchers have identified 34 black soldiers from Hampden County, including 10 from Springfield, seven from West Springfield and six from Westfield, according to Barboza, who is black and got involved with the issue while researching his family history.
“Over 30 years ago, I traveled through Massachusetts piecing together my own family story. As the story unfolded, I faced my own ignorance,” he said.
Springfield author and historian Joseph Carvahlo III, former president of the Springfield Museums, said the role of blacks in the Revolutionary War, and colonial Massachusetts in general, is not well known.
But blacks – both free and slaves – not only fought the British, they fought alongside white soldiers, a practice that became uncommon after the war, Carvahlo said.
Some slaves were able to gain freedom by joining the Continental Army, sometimes taking a white man’s place and fighting under his name, Carvahlo said.
Several soldiers – including Lemuel Haynes, of Granville, and Archelaus Fletcher, of West Springfield – achieved a certain prominence after the war, with Haynes becoming a Presbyterian minister and Wallace moving his large family to a farm in western New York state, where he lived to be 113 years old, he said.
Carvahlo, who is writing a book about black families in Hampden County between 1650 and 1865, said recognition for black soldiers is long overdue.
“All veterans who served, no matter what color, should be recognized, and they (black soldiers) were never recognized before,” he said.
“It’s time to recognize them in a special way,” he added.