African American Soldiers

In 1819, Prince Bent, “a man of collour,” signed a sworn affidavit that he had served with Dick Potter, another “man of collour,” in Colonel Christopher Greene’s Rhode Island regiment and that they had fought together at Red Bank. Bent, a former slave born in Africa in 1760, served with Potter, a freeman, throughout the Revolutionary War. Although the Rhode Island Regiment is often called the “Black Regiment” because Rhode Island officially authorized the recruitment of African American soldiers in 1778, muster records show that African Americans were already serving with Colonel Greene as early as 1777. Those rolls reveal a diverse group of former slaves, Native Americans, and freemen who fought together to defend the Delaware River, and among them Dick Potter and Prince Bent helped inflict one of the heaviest Hessian losses of the Revolution. Richard Potter later sought a pension in 1822, when his application said he was very meanly clad and had no means of subsistence.

National Park, New Jersey · United States