ng to arms in
response to that shot fired at Lexington, the echoes of which,
poetically speaking, were heard around the world, the free Negroes of
every Northern colony rallied with their white neighbors. They were in
the fight at Lexington and at Bunker Hill, but when Washington came to
take command of the army he soon gave orders that no Negroes should be
enlisted. He was sustained in this position by a council of war and by
a committee of conference in which were representatives from Rhode
Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and it was agreed that Negroes
be rejected altogether. The American Negro's persistency in pressing
himself where he is not _wanted_ but where he is _eminently needed_
began right there. Within six weeks so many colored men applied for
enlistment, and those that had been put out of the army raised such a
clamor that Washington changed his policy, and the Negro, who of all
America's population contended for the privilege of shouldering a gun
to fight for American liberty, was allowed a place in the Continental
Army, the first national army organized on this soil, ante-dating the
national flag. The Negro soldier helped to evolve the national
standard and was in the ranks of the fighting men over whom it first
unfolded its broad stripes and glittering stars.

[Transcriber's Note: This footnote appeared in the text
without a footnote anchor:

"To the Honorable General Court of the Massachusetts Bay:

"The subscribers beg leave to report to your Honorable
House, which we do in justice to the character of so brave a
man, that, under our own observation, we declare that a
Negro man called Salem Poor, of Col. Frye's regiment, Capt.
Ames' company, in the late battle at Charlestown, behaved
like an experienced officer, as well as an excellent
soldier. We would only beg leave to say, in the person of
this said Negro centres a brave and gallant soldier. The
reward due to so great and distinguished a character we
submit to the Congress.

"Cambridge, Dec. 5, 1775."

These black soldiers, fresh from heathen lands, not out of
slavery, proved themselves as worthy as the best. In the
battle of Bunker Hill, where all were brave, two Negro
soldiers so distinguished themselves that their names have
come down to us garlanded with the tributes of their
contemporaries. Peter Salem, until then a slave, a private