The Colored Regulars in the United States ArmySteward, T. G. (Theophilus Gould)
History
The Colored Regulars in the United States Army
Steward, T. G. (Theophilus Gould)
African American soldiers; Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Participation, African American
What effect this experience had upon these volunteers may be inferred
from their subsequent history. Robin says: "These men who contributed
their mite toward American independence, had still their mothers and
sisters in slavery; and they themselves were subject to humiliating
discriminations. Should not France have expected from that very
moment, that they would soon use in their own cause, those very arms
which they had learned so well to use in the interests of others?"
Madiou says: "On their return to Saint Domingo they demanded for their
brothers the enjoyment of political rights." Beauvais went to Europe
and served in the army of France; but returned to fight for liberty in
Hayti, and was Captain-general in 1791; Rigaud, Lambert and Christophe
wrote their names--not in the sand. These are the men who dared to
stir Saint Domingo, under whose influence Hayti became the first
country of the New World, after the United States, to throw off
European rule. The connection between the siege of Savannah and the
independence of Hayti is traced, both as to its spirit, and
physically, through the black legion that on that occasion saved the
American army. How this connection is traced to the republics of South
America, I will allow a Haytian statesman and man of letters, honored
both at home and abroad, to relate. I translate from a work published
in Paris in 1885:
"The illustrious Bolivar, liberator and founder of five republics in
South America, undertook in 1811 his great work of shaking off the
yoke of Spain, and of securing the independence of those immense
countries which swelled the pride of the catholic crown--but failed.
Stripped of all resources he took flight and repaired to Jamaica,
where he implored in vain of the governor of that island, the help of
England. Almost in despair, and without means, he resolved to visit
Hayti, and appeal to the generosity of the black Republic for the
help necessary to again undertake that work of liberation which had
gone to pieces in his hands. Never was there a more solemn hour for
any man--and that man the representative of the destiny of South
America! Could he hope for success? After the English, who had every
interest in the destruction of Spanish colonial power, had treated him
with so much indifference, could he hope that a new-born nation, weak,
with microscopic territory, and still guarding anxiously its own
ill-recognized independence, would risk itself in an enterprise
hazardous as the one he represented? Full of doubt he came; but Petion
gave him a most cordial welcome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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