Clinton Cox

Excerpt:

"Out of the millions of words written about the Revolutionary War, only a relative handful bother to acknowledge the contributions made by black soldiers at Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, Fort Ticonderoga, Saratoga, Yorktown, and all the other battlefields where black men suffered and died alongside white men to create this nation.

"It is as if those black patriots never existed and yet, without them, the war for independence from Great Britain might have been lost.

"When we think of soldiers suffering through the hunger, disease, and cold at Valley Forge, we do not think of black men like Phillip Field. Yet he was there.

"When we think of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys capturing Fort Ticonderoga 'in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress,' we do not think of black Green Mountain Boys like Lemuel Haynes or Barzillai Lew storming those stone walls. Yet they were there.

"When we picture brave patriots massing at Lexington and Concord in 1775 to defy the British Redcoats, we do not think of black men as being part of that bold group. Yet Cuff Whitemore, Peter Salem, and almost a dozen other black patriots stood side by side with white ones when the course of history was changed forever by 'the shot heard round the world.'

"From Lexington and Concord at the beginning of the war, to the surrender of the British army at Yorktown that sealed the outcome of that brutal struggle, black soldiers sacrificed their lives for freedom.

"When Washington and his battered army went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in that desperate winter of 1777-78, he had just 9,000 men. By March, more than 3,000 had deserted, and the cause of freedom hung by a thread.

"Into the midst of this dark night of America's hope for freedom, 5,000 black men came to the Continental Army, enlisted in the cause and--unlike most white soldiers who served short terms in state militias near home--served throughout the war in the force that bore the brunt of the fighting.

"This book is an attempt to tell the story of Lenuel Haynes and the thousands of other brave black men who watered the soil of freedom with their blood, helping to bring about the birth of a nation we now call the United States of America.

"It is one of the most remarkable and moving stories in American history, and one we all must know if we are to understand ourselves and the heritage we share."