In the colonial wars which distracted America during the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth centuries the Negro took comparatively small part because the institution of slavery was becoming more settled and the masters were afraid to let their slaves fight. Notwithstanding this, there were black freedmen who voted and were enrolled in the militia and went to war, while some masters sent their slaves as laborers and servants. As early as 1652 a law of Massachusetts as to the militia required “Negro, Scotchmen and Indians” to enroll in the militia. Afterward the policy was changed and Negroes and Indians were excluded but Negroes often acted as sentinels at meeting-house doors. At other times slaves ran away and enlisted as soldiers or as sailors, thus often gaining their liberty. The New York _Gazette_ in 1760 advertises for a slave who is suspected of having enlisted “in the provincial service.” In 1763 the Boston _Evening Post_ was looking for a Negro who “was a soldier last summer.” One mulatto in 1746 is advertised for in the Pennsylvania _Gazette_. He had threatened to go to the French and Indians and fight for them. And in the Maryland _Gazette_, 1755, gentlemen are warned that their slaves may run away to the French and Indians.[72] 2. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR The estimates of the Negro soldiers who fought on the American side of the Revolutionary War vary from four to six thousand, or one out of every 50 or 60 of the colonial troops. On August 24, 1778, the following report was made of Negroes in the Revolutionary Army:[73] Sick On Brigades Present Absent Command Total North Carolina 42 10 6 58 Woodford 36 3 1 40 Muhlenburg 64 26 8 98 Smallwood 20 3 1 24 2nd Maryland 43 15 2 60 Wayne 2 .. .. 2 2nd Pennsylvania 33 1 1 35 Clinton 33 2 4 62 Parsons 117 12 19 148 Huntington 56 2 4 62 Nixon 26 .. 1 27 Paterson 64 13 12 89 Late Learned 34 4 8 46 Poor 16 7 4 27 ---- ---- ---- ---- Total 586 98 71 755 Alex. Scammell, _Adj. Gen._ This report does not include Negro soldiers enlisted in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire and other States not mentioned nor does it include those who were in the army at both earlier and later dates. Other records prove that Negroes served in as many as 18 brigades.