I want to talk some more about Lexington. I’ve been thinking about Buckman Tavern and a small memorial that sits just outside of it. Buckman Tavern is a terrific historic site, full of lots of great history and stories, valuable to our understanding of the opening shots of the Revolution on many levels. The devil is in the details sometimes, though, and I’ve been thinking about two facets of this historical site.
In front of Buckman Tavern in Lexington is a smallish stone with a brass plaque affixed to it. The plaque is “In Honor of Prince Estabrook”. It says:
Prince Estabrook was a slave who lived in Lexington. At dawn on April 19, 1775 he was one of the Lexington Minute men awaiting the arrival of the British regulars at the Buckman Tavern. In the battle which followed Prince Estabrook was wounded on the green. Through circumstance and destiny he thus became the first black soldier to fight in the American Revolution. This monument is dedicated to the memory of Prince Estabrook and the thousands of other courageous patriots long denied the recognition they deserve.
This tiny memorial was erected on April 21, 2008. I couldn’t help but wonder when I first saw it if the force behind the plaque wasn’t the desire to be politically correct and be sure that the Revolution didn’t stay a ‘white man’s war’. I wondered if anyone would have armed a slave, and if a slave would have been a real member of the militia, or if he had been collateral damage reinterpreted into a hero two hundred years later. After viewing the memorial, I went into Buckman Tavern. There I was introduced to Mrs. Buckman, and I was a little miffed that a woman who worked so hard to feed and care for the Minute Men at Buckman Tavern could not even be afforded a first name and no portrait, so my scorn of Prince Estabrook grew a little.
So tonight, I started writing this bog, and decided I needed some more information. Turns out, Estabrook was a private in the militia under Captain John Parker. He was a paid Minute Man who had enlisted in 1773 and served on and off until 1783. Prince was property of Benjamin Estabrook. That means that he, like Mrs. Buckman, didn’t have rights to his own name, but only that of his master. Interestingly, Benjamin Estabrook emancipated Prince after his service in the Continental Army was completed. He died at age 90 in 1830. (Mrs. Buckman died and was replaced with a new Mrs. Buckman soon afterwards).
A little more research took me to Joseph J. Ellis’ book His Excellency. I’m about a quarter of the way through this biography of George Washington, and I remembered something. Seems that in October of 1775, Washington felt sure that he would have more recruits for his war than he’d need, so he didn’t think it necessary to include men of color. Just a few months later Washington, who was low on men, wrote to John Hancock to explain that he had decided to allow black men to enlist. Ellis explains that “Washington established the precedent for a racially integrated Continental Army, except for a few isolated incidents the only occasion in American military history when blacks and whites served alongside one another in integrated units until the end of the Korean War.” (Ellis 85)
Well then. I have revised my view of the Estabrook Memorial. Maybe it should have been larger and more detailed so that everyone could have a better understanding. Imagine, choosing to fight for the freedom of the men enslaving you.
