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Mentioned in 1 episodes
Revolutionary Blacks
Freeborn Men of Color, Soldiers of Independence
Book •
Revolutionary Blacks examines the lives of William and Benjamin Frank—freeborn men of color from Rhode Island—who enlisted in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Shirley Green blends genealogy, archival research, and microhistory to reconstruct daily life for free Black families, the brothers' military service, and how wartime policies and promises shaped their divergent postwar paths.
The book situates the Frank brothers within broader patterns of Black military service, recruitment policy shifts, and the social and legal constraints of Revolutionary-era Rhode Island.
Green also uses family oral history and DNA evidence to trace connections to the Black Loyalist migration to Nova Scotia.
The work highlights how promises of land, pay, and equality were often unevenly fulfilled for Black soldiers after the war.
Shirley Green blends genealogy, archival research, and microhistory to reconstruct daily life for free Black families, the brothers' military service, and how wartime policies and promises shaped their divergent postwar paths.
The book situates the Frank brothers within broader patterns of Black military service, recruitment policy shifts, and the social and legal constraints of Revolutionary-era Rhode Island.
Green also uses family oral history and DNA evidence to trace connections to the Black Loyalist migration to Nova Scotia.
The work highlights how promises of land, pay, and equality were often unevenly fulfilled for Black soldiers after the war.
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Mentioned in 1 episodes
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Liz Kovart
434 Freeborn Black Soldiers in the American Revolution
