America 250 Brown Bag Lunch with Eric Chandler

Slaves, Freemen & Haitians in the American Revolution:

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Among those largely written out of the historic narrative of the American Revolution were the people of color who fought for both sides, Rebels and Redcoats, and often for the same reason – the opportunity for emancipation and freedom from chattel slavery.

Free Blacks also fought, as did White colonists, to protect their families, their homes and their livelihoods. There are estimates that at times these soldiers of color would constitute as much as 25% of General Washington’s Continental forces.

Haitian troops sent over by their French masters protected Southern ports such as Savannah. But their participation in the American War for Independence would have even greater ramifications later on back on their home island.

Blacks were motivated by different social forces in the South than in the North where there was much more of a social revolution than in the slave-holding South.

Most of these people of color are anonymous, as were many of their White comrades in arms. But some have had their stories memorialized for future generations. Those are who we will introduce to you in this program.

Perhaps the next time you have the happenstance to view artwork commemorating the American Revolution you will bear in keep in mind who is missing as well as those portrayed.

Presenter bio:

Eric Chandler is retired from a 30+ year career as an underwriter for a leading land title insurance company. He has been involved in American Revolutionary War Living History since 1974. He has portrayed infantry, light infantry, whale-boat raider, and mounted and dismounted dragoons. He is currently serving his third term as a member of the Norwalk Historical Commission and sits on the Norwalk Historical Society Board of Directors.

His artistic endeavors included writing and recording a comedy CD, and decades as a musician playing Saxes in area Rock & Roll and Blues bands. To his credit, or shame, he had his likeness used in an issue of MAD Magazine. Eric is enjoying retirement with his wife Catherine, taking classes, giving lectures on historical topics and continuing to live history.