Princetown, and told us, with much humor, that they 'knocked the British
around lively,' at the latter place. He was also at the battle of
Springfield, and says that he saw the house burning in which Mrs.
Caldwell was shot, at Connecticut Farms."

"I further learn, (says the author of the 'Colored Patriots of the
Revolution'), that Cromwell was brought up a farmer, having served his
time with Thomas Hutchins, Esq., his maternal uncle. He was, for six
years and nine months under the immediate command of Washington, whom he
loved affectionately."

"His discharge," says Dr. M'Cune Smith, "at the close of the war, was in
Washington's own handwriting, of which he was very proud, often speaking
of it. He received annually, ninety-six dollars pension. He lived a long
and honorable life. Had he been of a little lighter complexion, (he was
just half white), every newspaper in the land would have been eloquent
in praise of his many virtues."

[7] Simon Lee, the grandfather of William Wells Brown, on his mother's
side, was a slave in Virginia, and served in the war of the Revolution.
Although honorably discharged, with the other Virginia troops, at the
close of the war, he was sent back to his master, where he spent the
remainder of his life toiling on a tobacco plantation.--_Patriotism of
Colored Americans._

CHAPTER II.

THE WAR OF 1812.

While there is no intention of entering into an examination of the
causes of the war between the United States and Great Britain in 1812,
yet in order to carry out the design of the author to show that in this
war,--like all others in which the government of the United States has
been engaged,--the negro, as a soldier, took part, it is deemed
necessary to cite at least one of the incidents, perhaps _the_ incident,
which most fired the national heart of America, and hastened the
beginning of hostilities.

The war between England and France gave to the American merchant marine
interest an impetus that increased the number of vessels three-fold in a
few years; it also gave command of the carrying trade of the West
Indies, from which Napoleon's frigates debarred the English merchantmen.
In consequence England sought and used every opportunity to cripple
American commerce and shipping. One plan was to deprive American ships
of the service of English seamen. Her war vessels claimed and exercised
the right of searching for English seamen on board American vessels.
During the year 18