Lynda Day, a Freeport resident and professor of Africana studies at Brooklyn College in the City University of New York, gave a presentation at the Freeport Memorial Library about African and Indigenous Americans who served in the American Revolutionary War. The talk was held on Sept. 26, and gave an overview of early African and Indigenous culture in New York, the history of enslavement in New York and the Northeastern U.S. and on those who served militaristically on both sides of the Revolutionary War.
Day, who also has a PhD in African and African American History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, answered some questions on the discussion. Some quotes are lightly edited for clarity.
Q: What inspired you to lead out this discussion on minorities in the Revolutionary War?
A: I [gave] a lecture on the African American and Indigenous presence in the American Revolution as part of Freeport’s celebration of the sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
I was motivated to participate after so many commemorations this year ignored the Black and Indigenous involvement in the fight, when in fact thousands of free and enslaved Blacks and members of Indigenous nations, both male and female, were inspired by the calls for freedom and liberty in this Age of Revolution.
Rather than undermining or tarnishing the achievements of the Founding Fathers, by reframing the American Revolution to include the role of the enslaved and enslavers in the war, as some may accuse historians like myself of doing, but as the head of the Smithsonian Anthea Hartig wrote, “When historians talk about reframing a traditional narrative we don’t mean erasing it, we mean adding the evidence, the voices, the objects that earlier tellings left out so that more Americans can see themselves reflected in the national story.”
And I would add that the enthusiasm and commitment of those not originally included in this movement, the disenfranchised, who were ready to die for the principles of liberty and justice, reinforces the values of those American principles we still fight for to this day.
Q: How does your academic expertise inform your discussion on this topic?
A: I completed a minor field in African American History from UW [University of Wisconsin-Madison], but most of what I learned about American history I learned in AP American History at South Side High School in Rockville Centre!
But specifically on this topic, I served as the first curator of Black History for the Joysetta and Julius Pearse African American Museum of Nassau County [in Hempstead] and in that position I spent a few years digging into local history publications and historical societies pulling out the hidden references to the history of Long Island’s Black involvement.
Q: What are some of the important events and stories that people should take note of when considering this history?
A: Regarding specific details, I would point to two.
First, the group of enslaved men of Boston who wrote to the Massachusetts legislature in 1777 to demand their freedom, citing the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence.
Second, Benjamin Whitecuff of Hempstead, whose father and brother died fighting for the patriot cause while he fought for the British and was eventually able to recover his family’s farm in Hempstead after the war.
Q: Do you believe schools do enough to teach these important stories?
A: Schools do not do enough to include information about the thousands of Black and Indigenous men and women who, inspired by the American fight for liberty from the British, seized the opportunities presented by the war and the Revolutionary ideals to fight for their own freedom.
They heard the cries for freedom from tyranny and were sure that those ideals applied to them as well. The Revolution reminds us that not only our white American heroes believed in that fight, but thousands of Black and Indigenous men did as well.
