Research Finds 10% of Harvard Minutemen Were Black Before Bunker Hill
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 2
Research Finds 10% of Harvard Minutemen Were Black Before Bunker Hill
2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 2
Summary
Recent research found about 10% of the roughly 1,500 minutemen camped at Harvard before the Battle of Bunker Hill were Black.
That finding recasts New England’s Revolutionary story, arguing the region’s abolitionist legacy has obscured how deeply slavery shaped Black Americans’ wartime choices.
In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, enslaved people lived amid a robust slave economy tied to plantations, churches and household labor, the report says.
When war began, many Black Americans faced a stark choice: fight for enslavers in the patriot cause or seek freedom through Lord Dunmore’s offer to those joining British forces.