what percentage was blacks in the navy during gulf war

Collectively, black unity had demonstrated a powerful threat, engendering fears in white America that were exacerbated by memories of the recent revolution in nearby Haiti (1791–1804). Yet, black-white relations worsened after the war. In New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, enslaved people and free blacks worked alongside whites to dig entrenchments for those cities, loudly proclaiming their civic and patriotic duty. In the Chesapeake, as many as 4,000 to 5,000 enslaved people fled to British protection and were evacuated to Bermuda, Canada, or Trinidad.

In some instances, the feats of men like Denison were recorded for posterity, but the stories of noncombatants are chronicled often only in statistics. Jackson ultimately secured the assistance of most with promises of freedom and equality that never fully appeared. Along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, enslaved peoples faced the same choices as did those in the Chesapeake, while along the Gulf Coast they found additional choices-some joined with the Spanish, with Native American tribes, and others with Andrew Jackson or the British. There were no all-black regular army units in 18, and the black presence, when noted, was poorly documented.

The American army had not opened its enlistments to black troops, and most states did not permit blacks to muster. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs DivisionĪs their stories testify, men of African descent did serve as soldiers and sailors aboard warships and on privateers during the war in substantial numbers on either side nearly 1,000 African American sailors were captured and held in Britain’s notorious Dartmoor prison-and they embraced their status as free black seamen struggling to uphold their belief in “Free Trade and Sailors Rights.” Some 600 Chesapeake Bay slaves joined the British Colonial Marines and marched with redcoats on Washington, DC, and Baltimore, while others chose to remain with their masters and fight for the Americans. This 1943 mural by Ethel Magafan celebrates the role of African Americans in the War of 1812

What percentage was blacks in the navy during gulf war