14. General Clinton and the Black Pioneers
General Clinton placed a Royal Marine lieutenant in charge of the Black Pioneers, assisted by white subalterns and black noncommissioned officers. The rank and file were runaway slaves, mostly from North and South Carolina, plus a few from Georgia. Clinton ordered that they be treated with respect and decency, and that they be adequately clothed and fed. He also promised them emancipation at the end of the war. Clinton’s North Carolina expedition ended in failure, but he took the Black Pioneers with him when he sailed north.
The context of decent treatment – a welcome contrast with their treatment as slaves – led the Black Pioneers to exert themselves greatly in the campaign that led to the capture of New York City by the British in 1776. Later that year, Clinton was ordered to take Newport, Rhode Island, and the Black Pioneers were the only Colonial unit that accompanied his British regulars. From Rhode Island, they were dispatched back to New York, and thence to Philadelphia, which fell to the British in 1777. In 1777, Clinton’s runaways became the nucleus of the Black Loyalist Company, which ably served the British for the rest of the war.
