These black soldiers, fresh from heathen lands, not out of slavery, proved themselves as worthy as the best. In the battle of Bunker Hill, where all were brave, two Negro soldiers so distinguished themselves that their names have come down to us garlanded with the tributes of their contemporaries. Peter Salem, until then a slave, a private in Colonel Nixon's regiment of Continentals, without orders fired deliberately upon Major Pitcairn as he was leading the assault of the British to what appeared certain victory. Everet in speaking "of Prescott, Putnam and Warren, the chiefs of the day," mentions in immediate connection "the colored man, Salem, who is reported to have shot the gallant Pitcairn as he mounted the parapet." What Salem Poor did is not set forth, but the following is the wreath of praise that surrounds his name:
Jona. Brewer, Col. Eliphalet Bodwell, Sgt. Thomas Nixon, Lt.-Col. Josiah Foster, Lieut. Wm. Precott, Col. Ebenr. Varnum, 2d Lieut. Ephm. Corey, Lieut. Wm. Hudson Ballard, Capt. Joseph Baker, Lieut. William Smith, Capt. Joshua Row, Lieut. John Morton, Sergt. (?) Jonas Richardson, Capt. Richard Welsh, Lieut.]
It is in place here to mention a legion of free mulattoes and blacks from the Island of St. Domingo, a full account of whose services is appended to this section, who fought under D'Estaing with great distinction in the siege of Savannah, their bravery at that time saving the patriot army from annihilation.
When the Revolutionary War had closed the brave black soldier who had fought to give to the world a new flag whose every star should be a star of hope to the oppressed, and whose trinity of colors should symbolize Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, found his race, and in some instances himself personally, encased in a cruel and stubborn slavery. For the soldier himself special provision had been made in both Northern and Southern colonies, but it was not always hearty or effective. In October, 1783, the Virginia Legislature passed an act for the relief of certain slaves who had served in the army whose "former owners were trying to force to return to a state of servitude, contrary to the principles of justice and their solemn promise." The act provided that each and every slave who had enlisted "by the appointment and direction of his owner" and had "been received as a substitute for any free person whose duty or lot it was to serve" and who had served faithfully during the term of such enlistment, unless lawfully discharged earlier, should be fully and completely emancipated and should be held and deemed free in as full and ample manner as if each and every one of them were specially named in the act. The act, though apparently so fair on its face, and interlarded as it is with patriotic and moral phrases, is nevertheless very narrow and technical, liberating only those who enlisted by the appointment and direction of their owners, and who were accepted as substitutes, and who came out of the army with good discharges. It is not hard to see that even under this act many an ex-soldier might end his days in slavery. The Negro had joined in the fight for freedom and when victory is won finds himself a slave. He was both a slave and a soldier, too often, during the war; and now at its close may be both a veteran and a slave.