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PLYMOUTH IN THE
REVOLUTION:
The American enlisted man |
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| Cato Howe (1750-1824) |
[Negroes should not have to pay taxes, since they
have] no voice or influence in the election of those who tax us
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Petition to the Massachusetts
legislature in 1780
from Paul Cuffe, a free Black shipbuilder of Dartmouth, Massachusetts
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Many Black Americans fought in the Revolution,
on both sides of the conflict. Several wealthy merchants and
gentlemen in the Plymouth area kept one or two slaves as house servants.
Some states, like Rhode Island, automatically freed slaves when they
passed muster. Massachusetts did not. Massachusetts,
however, in a series of lawsuits carried out in the early 1780s,
became first state to outlaw slavery
altogether.
Three young Black Plymoutheans - Prince Goodwin, Cato Howe and Quamany
Quash - enlisted in the Patriot forces. Cato Howe was
probably a free man. Quamany Quash was slave to
Theophilus Cotton of Plymouth, leaders of Plymouth's Sons of
Liberty. Cotton did not free Quamany Quash until 1781, after
Quash's service in the Continental Army.
Prince Goodwin was probably a freed slave.
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Quash seems to have been present at the Siege of Boston;
Howe was at Valley Forge and may have been at Bunker Hill.
Both Quash and Howe probably served in the New York campaign as
well as the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Saratoga and
Monmouth.
Research is ongoing in an
effort to document these men's history and service records. |
Battle of Bunker Hill, an engraving by John Trumbull |
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Following the war, the Town of Plymouth granted Howe 94 acres of
land near the Kingston/Carver border, known as Parting Ways. Howe invited Quamany
Quash, Prince Goodwin and another freed slave (Plato Turner) who had
served in the American Revolution to
join him there, with their families.
For a list of names of Black and Native American Patriots from Plymouth
County, click HERE.
For more information about these men and the settlement they founded,
click HERE. |
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| Deborah Sampson
(1760-1827) |
When I heard her spoken of as a Soldier, I formed the
idea of a tall, masculine female, who had a share share of understanding without
education, & one of the meanest of her sex - When I saw and discoursed with her I was
agreeably surprised to find a small, effeminate, and conversable woman, whose education
entitled her to a better situation in life
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Paul Revere to William Eustis
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In May of 1782, Deborah disguised herself as a
young man, left Plymouth County for a town in the north where she was not known,
and enlisted for three years in the army, using the name Robert Shurtliff. Although
General Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown in 1781, the war was not over until April
of 1783. Deborah served with the 4th Massachusetts Regiment (Captain Webb's Light
Infantry) in New York. A good soldier, she was teasingly called "Molly"
because she had no beard. Deborah was wounded at Tarrytown in October of 1782.
It may have been her wounds that led to her female identity being discovered.
She was discharged in October of 1783.
After the war, Deborah married Benjamin Gannett and had three children.
The family was poor and Deborah was forced to petition the Massachusetts General
Court for her military back pay. Paul Revere visited her to investigate her claim.
Her story piqued public interest and, in 1802, she traveled on a lecture tour
throughout New England.
Ill health resulting from her war wound led her to apply successfully for
an invalid pension in 1805 and a veteran's pension in 1819. After her death in
1827 at the age of 67, her husband Benjamin Gannett had the unusual distinction of being
granted a "widow's" pension as the husband of a veteran. |
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| Richard Bagnall
(1752-before 1846) |
While some soldiers served the entire duration
of the war, most served short terms of enlistment. They had crops to plant
and families to support. As the first wave of revolutionary fervor began to recede.
Congress increased terms of enlistment. Bounties of cash, clothing, food and land
were used as incentives to encourage soldiers to sign up. Richard Bagnall of
Plymouth first enlisted during the excitement after the Battle of Lexington. He left
for Marshfield with Colonel Theophilus Cotton's regiment, serving 11 days. He then
spent 8 months in and around Boston with Washington's army, receiving a coat as a bounty
for enlistment. As a corporal, Bagnall was the lowest rank of non-commissioned
officer.
In 1777, Bagnall enlisted in the Continental Army as an ensign (lowest
commissioned officer), under Colonel Ichabod Alden of Duxbury. The regiment served
in western New York State, which was inhabited by the Iroquois and other tribes of the Six
Nations. Many Native nations sided with the British. While moving troops from
Ticonderoga to Albany, the regiment was attached at Cherry Valley, where Colonel Alden was
killed. After the attack, General Washington thought it necessary to destroy the Six
Nations' settlements to protect the frontier. In the fall of 1779, an expedition
into Native territory destroyed 40 Indian towns and thousands of bushels of corn.
When Bagnall returned to Plymouth, he brought red-colored corn seed with him.
For the next two years, Bagnall served around West Point, New York, until
he joined Colonel Scammel's troops and traveled to Yorktown, Virginia, in the fall of
1781. Scammel, who had taught school in Plymouth, was fatally wounded at Yorktown.
Bagnall stayed with the army until 1782. After the war, he returned to
Plymouth where he and his wife Bethiah had eight children. |
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