I am a new member and suscribed to the digest yesterday. I don't know how many members of this list there are, but I will pose my question in hopes I get an answer or two. I am wondering if anyone knows whether, when African-Americans served in the American Revolution, if it was "normally" listed on draft papers or enlisted papers; or if in fact, African-Americans were drafted into service. The soldier enlisted twice and was drafted once according to his pension papers. In the pension papers or deposition to apply for pension, there was no mention of race. Thanks a million, Dee.

Dear Dee, I will be interested to see if anyone else responds to your question. I have been researching through a number of the NY Revolutionary War records. For that location at least, I would say that bit was more "occasionally" than "normally". It seems to have been used for identification, either "negro" or "indian", than a form of classification. I suspect that a lot more served than were so identified. As to the pension papers. For the main Pension Act (the 1832 one), in general, their content was in response to a form set of questions that were propounded. Race was not one of the items of information required to be supplied. Neither were battles that the veteran a was at or was in. Sometimes the information was volunteered but a lot of times these items were not mentioned in the application or supporting papers. Don Dee wrote: > I am a new member and suscribed to the digest yesterday. I don't know how many > members of this list there are, but I will pose my question in hopes I get an > answer or two. > > I am wondering if anyone knows whether, when African-Americans served in the > American Revolution, if it was "normally" listed on draft papers or enlisted > papers; or if in fact, African-Americans were drafted into service. > > The soldier enlisted twice and was drafted once according to his pension papers. > In the pension papers or deposition to apply for pension, there was no mention > of race. > > Thanks a million, > > Dee. > > ==== AMERICAN-REVOLUTION Mailing List ==== > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237

Thanks for responding. Thanks for the information, to wit: that there were a set list of questions asked in the Am. Rev. pension application; also that in NY, sometimes Indian or Negro was used as an identification. I am looking at a pensioner whose service included 2 one-month service in Fayette Co., PA, and one 5-month service in Bladensburg, MD. I was lucky in the pension application that I am looking at that they list in depth about his duties, where he enlisted and where he was drafted and his battles. At the time he first went into service in 1777, (1778, PA; and again 1781, Maryland) he was no longer an indentured servant (at age 29). However, one and maybe more persons are claiming that he is black. This is the reason for my wondering if any military papers might be in existence which could show that he was black. Thanks again. Dee. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Donald Lampson" <dlampson@earthlink.net> To: "Dee" <deedovey@rica.net> Cc: <AMERICAN-REVOLUTION-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: March 03, 2002 11:56 AM Subject: Re: [A-REV] Is race mentioned on enlistment papers or draft notices? Dear Dee, I will be interested to see if anyone else responds to your question. I have been researching through a number of the NY Revolutionary War records. For that location at least, I would say that bit was more "occasionally" than "normally". It seems to have been used for identification, either "negro" or "indian", than a form of classification. I suspect that a lot more served than were so identified. As to the pension papers. For the main Pension Act (the 1832 one), in general, their content was in response to a form set of questions that were propounded. Race was not one of the items of information required to be supplied. Neither were battles that the veteran a was at or was in. Sometimes the information was volunteered but a lot of times these items were not mentioned in the application or supporting papers. Don CORRECTION! Dear Dee, In my reply to your message I mistakenly said that the battles were not asked about either. That is not correct. I just looked a set of Interrogatories under the June 7, 1832 Act. Interrogatory #5 asks: "In what battles was he engaged?" For some reason, some of the pension files I have looked at missed quite a bit of the information about battles the individual applicants were at. I have no idea why. Perhaps some of the local judges were not that interested and were concentrating on identifying the periods of service to determine total amount time in service needed to determine the pension. I should have had a cup of coffee before replying. Don Dee wrote: > I am a new member and suscribed to the digest yesterday. I don't know how many > members of this list there are, but I will pose my question in hopes I get an > answer or two. > > I am wondering if anyone knows whether, when African-Americans served in the > American Revolution, if it was "normally" listed on draft papers or enlisted > papers; or if in fact, African-Americans were drafted into service. > > The soldier enlisted twice and was drafted once according to his pension papers. > In the pension papers or deposition to apply for pension, there was no mention > of race. > > Thanks a million, > > Dee. > > ==== AMERICAN-REVOLUTION Mailing List ==== > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237

CORRECTION! Dear Dee, In my reply to your message I mistakenly said that the battles were not asked about either. That is not correct. I just looked a set of Interrogatories under the June 7, 1832 Act. Interrogatory #5 asks: "In what battles was he engaged?" For some reason, some of the pension files I have looked at missed quite a bit of the information about battles the individual applicants were at. I have no idea why. Perhaps some of the local judges were not that interested and were concentrating on identifying the periods of service to determine total amount time in service needed to determine the pension. I should have had a cup of coffee before replying. Don