When the American Revolution erupted and the 13 colonies went to war with their mother country England, many blacks found themselves caught in the crossfire. Both slaves and free blacks watched as whites turned on each other, wondering where they would fit into the grand scheme of things. And many chose to make that decision themselves.

Blacks involved in the events of the American Revolution are not unknown. The first shot heard around the world was buried into Crispus Attucks' chest, a runaway slave born to an African father and a Natwick Nantucket Indian mother. He, along with a band ranging from mulattoes to Irishmen, confronted a British guard at the local customs house of Boston. In an ensuing melee British soldiers marched on the group of thirty, firing directly into the crowd and killing Attucks. Described by the British as a rabble-rousing fiend, Attucks was celebrated as a patriot by colonists who dubbed his deadly confrontation with the British troops The Boston Massacre of 1770. The event became a key symbol of what the colonists deemed to be British repression. Attucks however would not be the last black to earn the patriotic label.

When the Revolutionary war finally broke out numerous blacks joined the ranks of the Continental Army. Free blacks like Cuff Smith and Cesar Prince enlisted to fight the British. The founder of African American freemasonry Prince Hall himself is listed in military records of the Revolution. And it is said he fought at Bunker Hill. Pictures also show free black infantrymen in the first Rhode Island Regiment or speak of them among various troops. A great deal of these free blacks enlisted in the Continental army hoping their service would help the newly forming nation live up to its creed of freedom, and grant it to their black brethren held in bondage. Many enslaved blacks also attempted to join the Continental army, some of them successful and others of them returned to their masters. Quite a few offered to fight for the colonists, if they would be ensured freedom for themselves and their family in return.

Where blacks probably figured the greatest in the Continental forces was within the navy, where sailors were not restricted by color or race. The Continental Navy openly recruited both free and enslaved blacks, mostly sought after for their prior experiences on merchant and British military vessels. Numerous blacks, many of them slaves seeking escape and freedom, sought refuge in the navy where they served in battles against the British. A common practice among some white slave owners was to in fact substitute a slave for military service rather than enlisting themselves. Taking on tasks such as pilots, laborers and more these blacks earned an impressive reputation for their invaluable skills. One of the most famous black seamen was James Forten, who enlisted on the privateer Royal Louis. Altogether, it is believed some 5,000 free black patriots served in the armies and navies of the Continental forces. The amount of slaves who served within is unknown. And one of the reasons this number is unknown is because the overwhelming majority of blacks enslaved in the 13 colonies did not fight for their masters, but instead chose the other side.

While there were black patriots, many of them free, the majority of enslaved blacks who fought in the Revolutionary War did not fight for America - they fought for the British. These Loyalists, as those who remained faithful to the British were called in the colonies, were quite numerous. Often promising freedom, the British eagerly enticed black slaves to join their side. Many of these blacks weighed their option between their masters and their masters' enemies, and chose the latter.

One of the key methods of disrupting the Continental army that many enslaved blacks chose, was simply running away. During the Revolutionary War an estimated 100,000 took advantage of the disruption caused by the war and escaped, many of them heading directly to join British forces. Others fled to Canada, Florida, or Native American lands. Thomas Jefferson estimated that Virginia lost 30,000 slaves in just one year. Fugitive slave Boston King was one of these individuals, risking punishment or death to flee from bondage. He endured numerous harrowing adventures during his escape, finally making it to the British forces stationed in New York where most black runaways were gathered.

Many of these runaways joined the British armies and navies outright, becoming fighters who wreaked havoc on American forces. One of the most well known of these was Colonel Tye, an escaped slave who joined the British as a guerilla fighter. In 1778 at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey Tye captured a captain of the American militia, earning a reputation and name among the British. Comprised of enslaved blacks and lower class whites loyalists, Colonel Tye's rag-tag band became known as "cow-boys". They carried out daring militia attacks throughout New Jersey, often attacking military outposts, former masters' plantations and other Americans in rebellion against the British. During the brutal winter of 1779, Tye was among an elite group of twenty-four black Loyalists, known as the Black Brigade, who joined with the Queen's Rangers: a British guerrilla unit charged with protecting British held New York City and carrying out raids for supplies. By 1780 Tye and his band were feared by white members of the American forces: capturing and killing Continental militia members, destroying their military equipment and more.

As news of Colonel Tye's feats reached an excited slave community, the American governor of NJ in a desperate move invoked martial law - hoping to stop many slaves from going over to the British. Tye's exploits came to an end in the Autumn of 1780 after a minor wound in a skirmish turned fatal. But his military exploits would become the stuff of legends.

And not only enslaved blacks joined the British forces. Many free blacks, believing the British would guarantee a better freedom for their black brethren in bondage, urged blacks to join the redcoats as well. In 1775, Jeremiah Thomas, a pilot, fisherman, "and Free Negroe of considerable property", was hanged and burned in Charleston in an insurrection plot in which he enticed free and enslaved blacks to join the Royal British navy.

With the end of the Revolutionary War and the defeat of the British, many black loyalists found themselves in a dangerous predicament. Fearing punishment and death if captured by American militiamen, many fled to New York and sought refuge with the British forces gathered there. The British partially kept their reward to many of these blacks, allowing at least 3,000 to leave with them and be resettled in Nova Scotia. The unfortunate blacks that escaped to Savannah and Charleston were allowed to evacuate with their British allies as well, who promptly resold many of them back into bondage in the Caribbean. Most of the escaped slaves however were returned as "stolen property" to their colonial American owners.

Some black slaves ran away and refused to fully join either the American or British forces, waging guerrilla campaigns of their own even long after the Revolutionary war had ended.

During the Revolutionary War the British provided military training to thousands of black men, many of who carried on the war even after the British departed. In Georgia a large group of men and women erected twenty-one houses and planted rice fields in a clearing near the Savannah River. The site measured 700 yards long and 120 yards wide, and was protected by a four-foot high log-and-cane barrier. From this base in the swamps two escaped slaves dubbed "Captain Cudjoe" and "Captain Lewis" led an armed group of 100 men who called themselves "the King of England's Soldiers" in punishing guerilla attacks on plantations and state troops. They posed such a threat that in 1785 a joint Georgia and South Carolina military expedition was sent after them. Lewis was captured, tried and hanged - his head placed on a pole and displayed as a warning.

But this didn't stop numerous other escaped slave communities in the American south, often called maroons as were their brethren in the Caribbean, from continuing their guerilla attacks against US forces well into the early 1800s.

For further information:

Clifford, Mary Louise From Slavery to Freetown: Black Loyalists After the American Revolution

US Army Blacks in the Integrated Army of the American Revolution: (For Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness)

Walker, John The Black Loyalists