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Black History Month: James Armistead Lafayette

Our next African American hero of the American Revolution is James Armistead Lafayette, a freed slave turned colonial spy whose intelligence helped secure American victory at the Battle of Yorktown. 

Born into slavery, James was granted leave by his owner in order to join the American Revolution. As a volunteer to the American Continental Army, James was assigned to serve Marquis de Lafayette. In Lafayette’s employ, James posed as a runaway American slave and managed to get hired as a British spy. 

While secretly sending information back to the Continental Army, James infiltrated the headquarters of British General, Charles Cornwallis. It was thanks to James’s reconnaissance that the Americans were able to block reinforcements from reaching British soldiers at Yorktown. With James’s help, Patriot victory at Yorktown turned the tide of the Revolution and ultimately secured American independence. 

After the war, James returned to life as a slave while petitioning for his emancipation. In his letter of recommendation for James’s freedom, Marquis de Lafayette wrote, “James has done essential services to me while I had the honour to command in this state. His intelligences from the enemy’s camp were industriously collected and faithfully delivered. He perfectly acquitted himself with some important commissions I gave him and appears to me entitled to every reward his situation can admit of.” 

James was awarded his freedom in 1787. In honor of Marquis de Lafayette’s role in securing his independence, James took his last name. Later in life, James bought 40 acres of land, became a farmer, married, and raised a family. Until his death in 1830, he received $40 each year from the Virginian government in honor of his service. 

Sources: Mount Vernon 

 Black History Month: Phillis Wheatley

Our next African American hero of the American Revolution is Phillis Wheatley, the best of poets and best of women. 

Born in West Africa, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped as a young girl and sold into slavery in Boston, Massachusetts. Here, she was bought by John Wheatley to serve his wife, Susanna. Phillis’s intelligence and aptitude became immediately clear to the couple, and the Wheatley’s permitted her to learn to read and write in English, Greek, and Latin. As she studied, Phillis developed an affinity for poetry. 

As a teenager, her first poem was published in 1767. Six years later, she traveled to England with the Wheatley’s son. In London, she published her first book entitled, “Poems On Various Subjects, Religious, and Moral.” Upon her return to America, Phillis was granted her freedom by the Wheatleys. 

Although she did not fight in the Revolutionary War, Phillis Wheatley was an important American figure at the time of the revolution. She was the nation’s first black female poet to gain recognition, and her poems challenged the ideals and realities of the new nation, including slavery. Phillis’s body of work was frequently used to combat racist assertions against black intelligence and creativity. 

Phillis Wheatley was brought to the colonies against her will, but we are forever grateful for her important contribution to American culture in its early days.