From Slaves to Soldiers: The 1st Rhode Island Regiment in the American Revolution | Museum of the...

Today in American Military History -- 1778 As #BHM draws to a close in 2020...
The Rhode Island General Assembly authorizes enlistment of black troops

During the winter at Valley Forge General Washington faced chronic shortages of manpower. Rhode Island general James Varnum proposed a possible solution - he suggested that Rhode Island recruit an all-African American regiment to serve in the Continental Army. Washington did not object, and Varnum began recruiting that spring of 1778.

Throughout the war, men served in a variety of ways, often beginning at a young age with a local militia, where they mustered, marched, and provided protection for their own communities. Many of these signed on with the Continental regiments as the war progressed and climbed the ladder, so to speak, into a junior officer position. Such was not the case with blacks or indigenous peoples, who were long confined to the local militias. But once they were allowed to join, New England states contributed the largest portion of blacks to the Continental Army. A report of those returning from leave in August 1778 records some 755 black soldiers scattered over fourteen brigades." None of these men would ever climb above the rank of private.