Involvement in American Revolutionary War
Hall urged the enlistment of both enslaved and freed blacks for the attempt to free the American colonies from British control. Hall was concerned with the development of the colonies if they gained independence. He was certain that involvement of blacks in the construction of the new nation would be the first step toward complete freedom for all blacks. The Massachusetts Committee of Safety declined Hall’s proposal to allow blacks the opportunity to fight for the colonies. Prince Hall and supporters of his cause petitioned the Committee by comparing Britain’s ruling of the colonies with the enslavement of blacks. A proclamation from England guaranteed blacks that if they enlisted in the British army instead of the Continental they would be freed at the end of the war. Only after the British Army began to use blacks in their troops did the Continental Army change its decision to block admission of blacks into the military.
It is very likely that because of his strong support for the revolutionary cause Prince Hall had served in the Massachusetts militia during the American Revolutionary War. It is again unclear definitively whether he served or not since at least six men from Massachusetts who were named “Prince Hall” served in the military during the war.
Read more about this topic: Prince Hall
Famous quotes containing the words involvement in, involvement, american and/or war:
“The mother whose self-image is dependent on her children places on those children the responsibility for her own identity, and her involvement in the details of their lives can put great pressure on the children. A child suffers when everything he or she does is extremely important to a parent; this kind of over-involvement can turn even a small problem into a crisis.”
—Grace Baruch (20th century)
“Juggling produces both practical and psychological benefits.... A woman’s involvement in one role can enhance her functioning in another. Being a wife can make it easier to work outside the home. Being a mother can facilitate the activities and foster the skills of the efficient wife or of the effective worker. And employment outside the home can contribute in substantial, practical ways to how one works within the home, as a spouse and as a parent.”
—Faye J. Crosby (20th century)
“As a rule we develop a borrowed European idea forward, and ... Europe develops a borrowed American idea backwards.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Peace to the shacks! War on the palaces!”
—Georg Büchner (1813–1837)