Present to Past
Military Service
![A real photo postcard of a group of military service men and women taken at the YMCA camp near Chambery, France, during World War I. The image depicts five women standing in a row on a lawn, with four men crouched in a row in front of them. Addie Waites Hunton is in the center of the back row; the other women and men are unidentified. In the background is a large building with a double staircased entrance. A temporary sign reading [Y.M.C.A.] has been placed on the portico at the top of the stairs. Other individuals are visible along the top and bottom of the stairs. The verso has printing reading [CARTE POSTALE] with spaces for [Correspondance] and [Adresse] and a horse and horsehead mark for the publisher Guilleminot. The postcard has not been sent, but there is an inscription across the back by hand in brown ink reading [From Sgt. Thomas, who / was on leave at colored, / Y.M.C.A. at Chamberry / France]. There is an inscription by a different hand in graphite above the [Adresse] label reading [(ALFRED JACK THOMAS)].](/static/1d5e1bc56b6d284d508251843cbb0f1d/ca7d6/2014_63_77_001.webp)
1775The American Revolution
The Battle of Cowpens
Choosing Sides
Revolutionary War Muster Roll of Black and Indigenous Soldiers
Enslaved and free Black people used the American Revolution to pursue their own freedom. They chose strategically to side with either the British Loyalists or American colonist Patriots. Colonists fought in the American Revolution, a war for freedom from Britain, yet they maintained enslavement in all 13 colonies.
Although free Black men were part of colonial militias prior to the Revolutionary War and also a critical part of the Continental Army, George Washington initially forbade their recruitment, fearing it would challenge ideas of white manhood and encourage armed insurrection against enslavers. After the British offered freedom to Black men in exchange for service, Washington wrote, “We must use the Negroes or run the risk of losing the war.” In February 1778, the Rhode Island Assembly voted to allow non-white men to enlist, who would be “immediately discharged from the service of his master or mistress, and be absolutely free.”
British Emancipation
Cato Ramsay's Passport for Emigration to Nova Scotia, 1783
Enslaved Africans joined the British after Dunmore’s Proclamation in November 1775, which promised freedom for those enslaved by “revolutionaries.” The Proclamation bolstered British forces, but also attempted to incite rebellion among the enslaved and force the colonists to abandon their efforts. Between 800 and 2,000 enslaved Black people found freedom with the 1779 Philipsburg Proclamation, which freed all enslaved people owned by revolutionaries. More enslaved people found freedom through these Proclamations than through any other means until the Civil War.