"British African-American Troops." Topic

Now a section of one of my wargames clubs has approached me to paint up a small brigade for the Revolutionary War.

To understand out make up, people select the forces they want to and then pay those forces. I elected to field British and chose to do some African-American units. Question, were the officers in such units all white (like the ACW) or were there a mixture.

If you could recommend some books on the subject I'd be grateful.

You aren't going to field black units with your brigade, unless you want to game early war with Dunmore's Ethiopians. Officers were white. You sometimes find penny pockets of black loyalists but, black combat units in the way I imagine you envision them simply did not exist.

I generally agree with 79thPA. They served as individuals in Loyalist regiments, and Tory militia units. More than we Americans sometimes want to admit. There were pioneer battalions. Combat units though were rare. In addition to Dunmore's Ethiopians there were some units raised in the West Indies. If you want to go the "what if" role there is no reason you couldn't say the British decided to gather them all together in one brigade even though I doubt that ever happened. You could also say the British decided to recruit a brigade from escaped slaves who sought refuge with the British forces.

The library near my office has a study on African American loyalists. It is unfortunately closed due to Covid. If you want to check back in a couple of months I will see if it is something worth looking for. If you want a website, blackloyalist.info

Im not in a position to find it right now but I believe early in the war several British generals were interested in African man power for the their army which sorely needed recruits. However, other generals and politicians were against it and there was actually a proclamation that King George's army would remain a "white" army. Maybe someone else has more immediate access to it. It is a very interesting document.

Osprey's MAA 450 mention and depicts a unit of SC Royalists who look to have basically worn British kit. Plate F3.

It's a pity really, one of my favorite bits of the AWI is its multi-ethnic flava.

Mind you, for a skirmish set, an all-black force with white officers would be feasible. Dunmore's Ethiopians, the Black Company of Pioneers, the Independent Troop of Black Dragoons. The "Black Brigade"--24 strong, but with a black commander Colonel Tye. (See also Stephen Blucke. Neither was formally commissioned, but that's not always the point.)
You can to a degree integrate your other forces, too. Everyone--even the Hessians--tended to fill the ranks with black soldiers as the war went on.

Back in the 1990 I did a special issue of the Time Portal Passages on Loyalist forces, units and uniformed actions.

First of if you are into military you are going to have to give up the political corrective ness. You cannot res ear has. No sch term as British American African. Blacks may sound better than slaves but slave and ex slave are descriptors.but the were not ex slaves until the end of the war.
Lord Dunmore unit was turned into pioneers.
No black officer because even a gentry busnessman sponsoring his own unit risked becoming slaves. Forgets did not protect them

The Spanish used several units in the southern campaign. New Orleans had several well trained militia companies. They were units called white, creole or colored and black. Very good troops excellent scouts and hunters. The black units did most of the slave catching.

Rudy-I agree that the term British African American would not be technically correct, but since the terms of that era would be inappropriate today, we do need to call them something. Where I have a problem is with your slave/ex-slave.

In most colonies there were populations of free blacks. Some were freed slaves and others were born fee. Calling blacks in the colonies slaves would be misleading. During the war some British commanders extended protection to escaped slaves of rebel owners who reached their lines. I'd argue that any black who reached British lines when this existed became de facto a freedman at that point. We've seen that both Carleton and Cornwallis were prepared to protect them. That the possibility existed (and did in fact happen) that the former slaves might be re-enslaved does not change this. That was a risk that any black who sought protection or aided the British war effort faced.

IIRC the French also had a black unit, and elements of it served at the Siege of Savannah. Given that South Carolina refused to arm blacks at that time, I would guess the unit's long term presence in the south could prove a source of embarrassment.

They Were Good Soldiers : African-Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783
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Not much to add. Didn't exist other than as noted.

Coincidently, I just finished painting the black British side unit the Jamaica Regiment in 15mm last night! As shown in a Loyalist Osprey : tricorne, white jacket, red cuffs and facings. Other than the command stand, they will usefully double as 1st Rhode Island on the American side since there is uncertainty about what headgear the line companies of this regiment wore. So some great double mileage!
Also did this since I want to play West Indies v Spanish/French durIng the AWI.
PS My black Spanish and French colonial regular units I treat as elite light infantry.

While not Loyalist, at least 80 black patriots served in about every battle/skirmish in SC. A report by the SC SAR is being prepared to be presented to all SC schools.

The British privateers that plagued Virginia's "eastern frontier" regarded slaves as excellent loot; they were self-propelled, and there was a ready market in the Indies. BUT, yes, many of the privateer crews included blacks. Our modern race consciousness -- or maybe race solidarity is the better term -- hardly existed two hundred years ago. There were plenty of free blacks who owned slaves. The institution was still about as accepted as during New Testament times; you just didn't want to be one yourself. I'll have to look it up, but I'm pretty sure the slave who led the AMISTAD revolt --Cinque-- eventually returned to Africa and may have become a slave trader himself.

Cinqué and the other Mende reached their homeland in 1842. In Sierra Leone, Cinqué encountered civil war. He and his company maintained contact with the local mission for a while, but Cinqué left to trade along the coast. Little is known of his later life, and rumors circulated. Some maintained that he had moved to Jamaica.[3] Others held that he had become a merchant or a chief, perhaps trading in slaves himself.[4]

The latter charge derived from oral accounts from Africa cited by the twentieth-century author William A. Owens, who claimed that he had seen letters from AMA missionaries suggesting Cinqué was a slave trader. More recently historians such as Howard Jones in 2000 and Joseph Yannielli in 2009 have argued that, although some of the Africans associated with the Amistad probably did engage in the slave trade upon their return, given the nature of the regional economy at the time, the allegations of Cinqué's involvement seem implausible in view of the lack of evidence, and the unlikelihood of a conspiracy of silence leaving no traces.[5]

Re the OP,

It's been a long time since I reviewed this, but iirc, you would not find persons of color in British units. In Loyalist units I think the suggested proportion was about 1 in 10ish.

The unit I think Bill N was suggesting was the French Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue. This was a unit of free men of mixed race recruited in Haiti, Martinique and Guadalupe.

I don't know that there was any prohibiting law preventing black people from serving in British or Colonial regiments on an individual basis so that could have been possible, even in an army which didn't field racially segregated (to use a later term) units. The Royal Navy promoted a former slave called John Perkins to post captain during this period (he received the rank in 1800), although the navy hierarchy was rather more meritocratic than the army purchase system.

I suspect black soldiers may well have served in otherwise white units, but this may not have been considered remarkable. If this sounds far fetched it also happened in the British Army in WW1 for example.

Oh really?

Adjud General James Patterson
March 14 1777 Negros Mulattoes Indians shall be discharged.
orders given none in future will be admitted or enlisted on any account
Signed
by Sir William Howe march 16 1777.
The comander in chief being desireius that the Provincial forces be put on the most respectable footing, and according to his first intention be composed of his Majesty Loyal Ameican subjects has directed that all Negros Mulattoes and other improper persons who have been admitted in to the corps will recieve particular orders on this subject to prevent such abuses in the future.

Cheers Minipigs I wasn't aware of that order. But doesn't the wording suggest that black, mixed race or Indian soldiers were in fact being recruited prior to this?

You can find a similar order from one George Brinton McClellan in a later American conflict, but it turned out he had neither the first nor the last word on the subject. And at a time when the French Foreign Legion was supposed to be exclusively white, some distinctly oriental faces show up in Algeria.

So too here. As newarch says, the wording suggests that they were already in the ranks. Dunmore's Ethiopians have already come and gone. The Black Pioneers exist straight through, the Black Brigade operates in 1777 and 1778, and Wikipedia mentions an "Independent Troop of Black Dragoons" in 1782. There's a German eye-witness account of Yorktown which describes dead black soldiers in British and German uniforms. (I'll grant you he probably couldn't have told a British uniform from a red-coated loyalist.)

Much easier to issue an order than to ensure compliance.

@newarch

Yes, I think your right. At different times and in different theatres, this order was ignored. But, it does seem like the regular British army was basically white and European by birth with a smattering of American, African or Caribbean blacks for musicians. I suppose if the British army wasn't going to accept white Loyalists into the regular army, black men were out of luck as well.

Although the British army did elevate a few loyalist units to establishment status, I would imagine these units were probably wholly comprised of American born or recently emigrated persons?

One thing I found interesting was that several Hessian regiments used escaped slaves as musicians. I was told that some of those units returned to Germany with those musicians and maintained the tradition of having black musicians until after WWI.

Several of my Hessian battalions have black drummers.

Are these specially sculpted African drummers or are you painting white drummers in black face?

I think ANTIFA would like to know.

Not sure about his Hessians but my continentals have the odd black soldier which so far is simply a white face painted black. One source for Virginia continentals raised in late 1780 indicates that 5-6% were black. I know both rebel and Tory militia could include black soldiers. I want to see the source Militia Pete is referring to on blacks serving in SC as it is not consistent with Laurens' failed effort.

The Virginia militia law provided that free blacks were to serve but only as musicians (i.e. unarmed). So feel free to give a militia unit a black drummer.

Also, Virginia volunteer light horse, consisting of the young master and often his black body servant (on the SECOND best horse ij the stable) did serve occasionally, typically during invasions. There were a few in the Yorktown campaign.

MiniPigs, nothing in the order you quoted prohibits regular units recruiting North American whites, and there's a certain amount of literature on pressuring American POWs to join British units--by no means all loyalist. Some people seem to have bounced back and forth quite a bit, especially in the south.

Loyalist units are mixed--and need a lot more study than they've been given: check with me in about a year. I suspect they had a higher percentage of immigrants than Continental units, but a number of them were born in North America. Worth noting that a percentage of the Loyalist officers had never been to North America prior to the Revolution. See one Banastre Tarleton, for example. But he wasn't unique.

Yes, the stereotypical profiles of loyalists are contradictory from north to south, with Boston merchants and former Regulators mixed somehow. And of course the Livingstons and deLanceys changed places as power shifted in NY.

"Are these specially sculpted African drummers or are you painting white drummers in black face?"

LOL, they're 15mm so no one even notices.

No, he's painting metallic or grey plastic faces one colour or another.