Representatives in 1820, and that of Hon. Wm.
Eustis, of Massachusetts, during the same debate. Mr. Pinckney said:

"It is a remarkable fact, that notwithstanding, in the
course of the Revolution, the Southern States were
continually overrun by the British, and that every negro in
them had an opportunity of leaving their owners, few did;
proving thereby not only a most remarkable attachment to
their owners, but the mildness of the treatment, from whence
their affection sprang. They then were, as they still are,
as valuable a part of our population to the union as any
other equal number of inhabitants. They were in numerous
instances the pioneers, and in all the laborers, of your
armies. To their hands were owing the erection of the
greatest part of the fortifications raised for the
protection of our country; some of which, particularly Fort
Moultrie, gave, at the early period of the inexperience and
untried valor of our citizens, immortality to American arms;
and, in the Northern States, numerous bodies of them were
enrolled into, and fought, by the side of the whites, the
battles of the Revolution."--_Annals of Congress._

And said Mr. Eustis:

"At the commencement of the Revolutionary war, there were
found in the Middle and Northern States, many blacks, and
other people of color, capable of bearing arms; a part of
them free, the greater part slaves. The freemen entered our
ranks with the whites. The time of those who were slaves was
purchased by the States; and they were induced to enter the
service in consequence of a law by which, on condition of
their serving in the ranks during the war, they were made
freemen.

"The war over, and peace restored, these men returned to
their respective States; and who could have said to them, on
their return to civil life, after having shed their blood in
common with the whites in the defence of the liberties of
their country, 'You are not to participate in the liberty
for which you have been fighting?' Certainly no white man in
Massachusetts."

Such is the historic story of the negro in the American Revolution, and
it is a sad one as regards any benefit to his own condition by his
connection with either side. But it is one of the most memorable of all
history on exhibition of the fidelity of a race to the c