Harold,
One of the problems is that there were no racial designations on the rosters themselves. If you are looking for an ancestor, you need to follow the surname. Also, you may be able to locate the roster by checking the DAR Library, and locating the papers of the commanding officer. Many of those who were Persons of Color, have descendants who have crossed racial lines. That seems to be a sensitive issue in Virginia, and it is opening a can of worms.
Anita
-- Debra Jackson/Harold Forsythe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Anita,
It is Harold writing. Debra is reading microfilm in another room.
I see your point and I tried to put this controversy to rest by providing
a kind of meta-analysis that attempts to explain why these erasures happen
and why they are so irritation.
My great uncle (a WW I vet) wrote me shortly before he died that his great
grandfather was a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia who was manumitted
for his military service.
Some just resist the idea that there were brown faces among the Founders.
best,
Harold
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anita Wills" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2005 1:23 PM
Subject: Re: Surrender at Yorktown to be Commemorated October 18-22, 2006
> Debra,
>
> It seems that some people feel as if I am ruining their celebration. They
> do not understand that it is all Americans celebration. The only unit of
> color included in the celebrations is the Rhode Island Corp. Yet Natives
> and Free blacks from Virginia fought at The Siege of Yorktown. I supplied
> the Historians at Colonial Yorktown with the roster which contained all of
> the names of The Amherst County Soldiers, believing they would be made a
> part of the official roster. Yet, Colonial William Cabells name in listed,
> and so is Marquis De Lafayette. How is it that their names are included
> but the names of the troops are left out?
>
> I believe we should correct the record whenever possible, otherwise, it is
> not history, just someones version of it.
>
> Anita
>
> -- Debra Jackson/Harold Forsythe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello All:
>
> I have been pondering whether to enter into this controversy about the
> Battle of Yorktown and its commemoration or not. Finally, I conclude that
> I
> have a few things or use to share with the list.
>
> The national ambivalence about sharing the real constitution of armies
> from our most sacred battlefields is a constant for Americans. David
> Blight
> begins his Beyond the Battlefield with a long description of the 1913
> commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg, from which blacks were barred.
> While it is true that there were no USCT regiments present, there were
> black
> Pennsylvania militia units in the area and African-American wage support
> workers with the Army of the Potomac.
> The reality that soldiers in our Civil War as in our War for Independence
> saw was altered later for essentially political reasons. The simple
> reason
> being that in the Antebellum era and again in the Gilded Age-Progressive
> Era, The USA was reconceived as a white entity.
> This point was powerfully illustrated for me by an art historian who
> spoke
> at the Rubin Lecture in American Art History at the Metropolitan Museum of
> Art back in I think 2002. The lecture was on the painting of William
> Sydney
> Mount, a New York artist and Democratic political activist. Mount was
> from
> Long Island and lived in an area that had always been populated by many
> black families; first as slaves, then as free men and women. Most of
> Mount's painting portrayed these black men and women, the models probably
> his neighbors, often painted into the foreground of the canvasses. But
> one
> painting, which has a young man sipping cider through a straw from a
> barrel
> is the one major Mount canvass that contains no black people (or Indians)
> at
> all. This scholar explained that Mount painted this piece to be his
> allegory for America. I found this remarkably interesting. Blacks, of
> necessity appeared in Mount's optic, but not in his politics. Thus, in
> his
> career as a painter he constantly portrayed black people but on the one
> canvass that was an allegory of his Democratic politics he erased them.
> What Ms. Wills is remarking on is this erasure. It can be a very
> emotional issue for some of us because the erasure is both a lie and an
> affront. I am not familiar with the details of commemoration at Yorktown
> but I hope that we can reach agreement on the larger point: when serious
> scholarship shows the presence of blacks and others subsequently erased
> from
> important moments in American history, all of us on this list see this as
> an
> historical error.
> We may not have the leverage to change organizational behavior at
> Jamestown, or Williamsburg, or Gettyburg, but I am certain that we have
> the
> common rationality to observe emerging historical documentation and stand
> in
> broad agreement on their general significance. Then we can take weeks
> arguing about the more nuanced conclusions we draw from that evidence.
>
> Harold S. Forsythe
> Visiting Fellow (2005-2006)
> Program in Agrarian Studies
> Yale University
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Anne Pemberton" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2005 10:12 AM
> Subject: Re: Surrender at Yorktown to be Commemorated October 18-22, 2006
>
>
>>I agree that Anita is not being oversensative. She may not phrase her
>> concerns in the proper tone, but her comments are well worth taking
>> seriously.
>>
>> We have a problem with children taking an interest in history. When we
>> celebrate history, we should make it a point to include all participants
>> so
>> that children can see the wide participation in historical events. We
>> owe
>> it to our school children as well as interested adults to include the
>> honors
>> and recognition for past deed as widely as we can and still be accurate.
>>
>> If the information to make this more accurate is available, it should be
>> happily included, not stiff-armed.
>>
>> Anne
>>
>>
>>
>> Anne Pemberton
>> [log in to unmask]
>> http://www.erols.com/stevepem
>> http://www.erols.com/apembert
>> http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
>>
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>
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