Salem Poor

USPS postage stamp , 1975 ( Contributors to the Cause )

Salem Poor (* 1758 in Province of Massachusetts Bay , then a colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain , now Massachusetts , United States of America , † 1802 in Boston ) was an African American soldier who was honored for his bravery in the Battle of Bunker Hill .

Poor was born a slave and ransomed himself for £ 27 in 1769. He married very early and lived in Andover, Massachusetts . In 1775 he joined the Massachusetts militia ( militia ). At the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, he excelled through excellent achievements. So extraordinary was his contribution that it was mentioned in a petition to the Massachusetts government signed by 14 of its officers: “A negro named Salem Poor of Colonel Frye's Regiment, Captain Ames' company, recently behaved in the Battle of Bunker Hill as a skilled officer and excellent soldier. It would be too lengthy to describe his heroic contribution in more detail. We can only say that the essence of a brave and chivalrous soldier can be found in the person of the said negro. "

It is said that he fatally wounded James Abercrombie Jr. with a musket shot.

On July 10, 1775, George Washington decided to stop recruiting African Americans; on November 12 of the same year he issued orders banning blacks from serving in the Continental Army . Despite being excluded from recruitment, by then those who had served some time had been allowed to stay. The British Governor of Virginia , Lord Dunmore , immediately offered freedom to all blacks willing to fight for the British Army on November 7th . Thousands of blacks fought on the side of the British.

Washington, who had held slaves himself, immediately changed his position and ordered all recruits to take in any black who wished to fight. Poor was resumed and served with the Patriots until 1776. He was believed to have been involved in winter camps at Valley Forge in 1777–78 and fought in the Battle of White Plains .

Poor married twice more and died in Boston in 1802.

Salem Poor was honored in 1975 with a stamp in the Contributors-to-the-Cause series on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the USA.

literature

• Encyclopedia of Afro-American Culture and History . Volume 4, Simon & Schuster Macmillan, New York 1996, pp. 2185 f.
• Dictionary of American Negro Biography . WW Norton & Company, New York 1982, pp. 500 f.
• Irene Sege: Freed slave's story uncovered by owner's descendant . In: The Boston Globe . February 21, 2007

Remarks

1. ↑ www.etext.lib.virginia.edu ( Memento of the original from February 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ "Freed slave's story uncovered by owner's descendant" . Boston Globe , February 21, 2007.
3. ↑ www.esperstamps.org ( Memento of the original from December 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.