Black Patriot

A Black Patriot was an African American who sided with the revolutionary Americans during the American Revolutionary War. Black Patriots were the opposite of the much larger group of Black Loyalists who were African Americans who took up the British offer of freedom and took refuge behind the Redcoat ranks. Black Patriots includes those (but is not limited to) those 5000 African Americans or more who fought on the Continental Army during the war.

Blacks who served in the Continental Army
After the British started recruiting African Americans to start serving or assisting the British cause on the promise of freedom, Americans began to recruit free blacks in New England and the East Coast to serve in the army. They were promised a life of luxury and mobility if they joined the war. The northerners were also trying to escape the harsh treatment of the slavery time era. By joining the war they believed they were bettering the lives of African Americans all over.

Descendants of Black Patriots
Famed African American, Harvard scholar and professor Henry Louis Gates is descended from John Redman, a Free Negro who served in the Continental Army. Professor Gates is currently working on a project to find all descendants of Black Patriots who served in the American Revolutionary Continental Army.

Proposed memorial
The National Liberty Monument is a proposed national memorial to honor the more than 5,000 enslaved and free persons of African descent who served as soldiers or sailors or provided civilian assistance during the American Revolutionary War. The memorial is an outgrowth of a failed effort to erect a Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial, which was authorized in 1986 but whose memorial foundation dissolved in 2005. Congress authorized the National Liberty Monument in January 2013. On September 8, 2014, the United States House of Representatives passed the joint resolution Approving the location of a memorial to commemorate the more than 5,000 slaves and free Black persons who fought for independence in the American Revolution. The joint resolution would approve the location of a commemorative work to honor the more than 5,000 slaves and free black persons who fought in the American Revolution.

Further viewing or reading
For love of liberty [videorecording] : the story of America's black patriots / a film by Frank Martin ; an Eleventh Day Entertainment production ; produced by Frank Martin, Rudy Poe, James Crite ; directed by Frank Martin. Publisher Universal City, CA : Distributed by Vivendi Entertainment, c2009