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Juneteenth and Other Lesser Known African-American Historical Culture

Khalid Elhassan June 15, 2020 34 min

Colonel Tye - American Revolutionary War — Colonel Tye as portrayed in a PBS documentary. PBS

19. Armed Blacks in the South

In April, 1776, a British expedition into North Carolina under the command of General Henry Clinton was joined by 71 escaped slaves. Clinton took an immediate liking to the black runaways, and formed them into a company that came to be known as the Black Pioneers. He placed a Royal Marine lieutenant in charge, assisted by white subalterns and black non-commissioned officers. The rank and file were comprised of escapees, mostly from North and South Carolina, plus a few from Georgia.

Clinton ordered that the Black Pioneers be treated with respect and decency, and that they be adequately clothed and fed. He also promised the runaways 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, where they participated in that city’s capture by the British in 1776.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.