Peter Salem
Peter Salem (1750–1816) was a free Negro (African American) who served as a soldier in the American Revolutionary War[1]. He was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, a slave of Jeremiah Belknap. Salem was later sold to Lawson Buckminster, who gave him his freedom to enlist in the Continental Army.[2] At least one record calls him "Salem Middlesex".
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[edit] Military service
Peter Salem was given his freedom to join the military and took part in the battle of Concord on April 19, 1775. One week later, he enlisted in Captain Drury's company of Colonel John Nixon's 6th Massachusetts Regiment.
[edit] Battle of Bunker Hill
Salem served with his regiment in the Battle of Bunker Hill where he fired his last shot and killed British Marine Major John Pitcairn. Other free Negro's in the battle were Barzillai Lew, Salem Poor, Titus Coburn, Alexander Ames, Cato Howe, and Seymour Burr. Salem reenlisted in 1776, and fought again at the battles of Saratoga and Stony Point.
[edit] Later life and death
After the war, he lived in Salem,Massachusetts and married Katy Benson in September 1783. After the war, Salem built a cabin near Leicester, MA and worked as a cane weaver. He died in the poorhouse at Framingham on August 16, 1816 at the age of 66. A gravestone monument was erected in 1882 in Framingham in his memory.
[edit] Legacy
Salem became well-known in American history because he fought in the battle of Bunker Hill, as shown in John Trumbull's famous painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill. He is most remembered for killing British Marine Major John Pitcairn. In 1909, the Daughters of the American Revolution turned his home in Leicester into a historical monument; a stone there bears the inscription "Here lived Peter Salem, a Negro soldier of the Revolution". [3]
[edit] References
- ^ "The Revolution's Black Soldiers"- Retrieved 2011-02-09
- ^ Blackpast.com - Retrieved 2011-02-09
- ^ American National Biography Online website ([1])-Retrieved 2012-02-22.
[edit] Notes
- Celebrate Boston article about role in Battle of Bunker Hill
- Framingham School page on Peter Salem
- African American article on Peter Salem
- New York Review of Books clarification about Peter Salem in Trumbull's painting
- http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/peter-salem-original-patriot
- Harcourt Horizons United States History
- "Patriots of Color", more information about Salem and the Trumbull painting
- Identifying the Soldier Named “Salem”, from Boston 1775
- [2], clarification on the identity of Peter Salem in Trumbull's painting
[edit] External links
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