The Black Military Family: Inspiring through Military Legacy

56 | BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 83, NO. 2 (EXTENDED DIGITAL VERSION) 83 No.2 THE BLACK MILITARY FAMILY: INSPIRING THROUGH MILITARY LEGACY By: Charles E. Lewis III and Lynne Chandler Garcia As one of the earliest government institutions to desegregate, the US armed forces have remained a career choice for some Black Americans. Statistically, however, there is less evidence of African Americans choosing military careers as a family or legacy tradition than there is for non-African Americans doing so. Understanding historical and current reasons for these patterns might help address the choice. The benefits of military service for Black families, as well as the challenges and hardships, are worthy of analysis. Military history education will provide key military-legacy examples for African Americans. Better dissemination through school curriculum of African American military dedication and achievement throughout American history will provide inspirational examples for all Americans. African American Military Service Before the Civil War African American men—enslaved or free—served the British colonies of America for the general public safety and in the colonial wars: King William’s, Queen Anne’s, King George’s, and the French and Indian wars. During the Revolutionary War for independence from Britain, however, African Americans found themselves in a gambit that would run through generations for them: with which side should they ally for the best advantage? Whom could they trust? Some thought that American independence would create an environment sympathetic to their equality and independence too. Others accepted the British offer of freedom for service against the colonial rebels. So, an estimated 9,000 African American men served the army and navy of independence, out of the total 200,000-250,000 who served. Historians note that these Black service members tended to stay in service longer than Whites and thus give more manpower. Meanwhile, of the approximately 100,000 Black men who were enslaved who fled their owners during the war, about 20,000 accepted the British invitation to serve against the colonists and thus earn their freedom. A similar pattern occurred during the War of 1812—often seen as the “second war for American independence.” Before this war, the new US government, in its militia act, did not allow non-Whites to serve in militias, but did allow them to serve in the army. So many of them did do so, hundreds, but perhaps not more. Neglecting to offer freedom, or even deal fairly and openly, continued to be a disadvantage in America’s efforts at military preparedness. Similarly, during that same between-wars period, New Jersey had allowed Blacks and women to vote in its new state constitution. When they did so enthusiastically and helped elect a new president—Jefferson—the New Jersey legislature rewrote its law to exclude them from voting. Frederick Douglass’s “Call to Arms” and Black Civil War Service for Emancipation The great abolitionist author, orator, and international celebrity Frederick Douglass campaigned in his newspaper as well as privately for Black military service. He championed this as a right and privilege perhaps more conspicuously than anyone before or since. Initially disappointed with Abraham Lincoln, Douglass was inspired by the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, for referring to using Black troops. BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 83, NO. 2 (EXTENDED DIGITAL VERSION) | 57 83 No.2 “I now for the first time during this war feel at liberty to call and counsel you to arms. By every consideration which binds you to your enslaved fellow countrymen, and the peace and welfare of your country; by every aspiration which you cherish for the freedom and equality of yourselves and your children; by all the ties of blood and identity which make us one with the brave black men now fighting our battles . . . I urge you to fly to arms, and smite with death the power that would bury the government and your liberty in the same hopeless grave . . . We can get at the throat of treason and slavery through the State of Massachusetts. She was first in the War of Independence; first to break the chains of her slaves; first to make the black [sic] man equal before the law; first to admit colored children to her...