RYLAND
EMPLOY NEGROES.--NEW YORK PASSES AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE
RAISING OF TWO COLORED REGIMENTS.--WAR IN THE MIDDLE AND
SOUTHERN COLONIES.--HAMILTON'S LETTER TO JOHN JAY.--COL.
LAURENS'S EFFORTS TO RAISE NEGRO TROOPS IN SOUTH
CAROLINA.--PROCLAMATION OF SIR HENRY CLINTON INDUCING
NEGROES TO DESERT THE REBEL ARMY.--LORD CORNWALLIS ISSUES A
PROCLAMATION OFFERING PROTECTION TO ALL NEGROES SEEKING HIS
COMMAND.--COL. LAURENS IS CALLED TO FRANCE ON IMPORTANT
BUSINESS.--HIS PLAN FOR SECURING BLACK LEVIES FOR THE SOUTH
UPON HIS RETURN.--HIS LETTERS TO GEN. WASHINGTON IN REGARD
TO HIS FRUITLESS PLANS.--CAPT. DAVID HUMPHREYS RECRUITS A
COMPANY OF COLORED INFANTRY IN CONNECTICUT.--RETURN OF
NEGROES IN THE ARMY IN 1778.

The policy of arming the Negroes early claimed the anxious
consideration of the leaders of the colonial army during the American
Revolution. England had been crowding her American plantations with
slaves at a fearful rate; and, when hostilities actually began, it
was difficult to tell whether the American army or the ministerial
army would be able to secure the Negroes as allies. In 1715 the royal
governors of the colonies gave the Board of Trade the number of the
Negroes in their respective colonies. The slave population was as
follows:--

NEGROES. | NEGROES.
New Hampshire 150 |Maryland 9,500
Massachusetts 2,000 |Virginia 23,000
Rhode Island 500 |North Carolina 3,700
Connecticut 1,500 |South Carolina 10,500
New York 4,000 | ------
New Jersey 1,500 | Total 58,850
Pennsylvania and Delaware 2,500 |

Sixty years afterwards, when the Revolution had begun, the slave
population of the thirteen colonies was as follows:--

NEGROES. | NEGROES.
Massachusetts 3,500 |Maryland 80,000
Rhode Island 4,373 |Virginia 165,000
Connecticut 5,000 |North Carolina 75,000
New Hampshire 629 |South Carolina 110,000
New York 15,000 |Georgia 16,000
New Jersey 7,600 |