Black History Month: The Story of Prince Freeman

Guest Blogger:  Emily Bigioni

Many people tend to forget that there were African-American soldiers who served in the American Revolution, many of whom applied for and received military pensions. In honor of Black History Month, we have the story of one of these soldiers and pensioners:

Prince Freeman's discharge document, 

signed by General Washington,

showing that he was honored

with the Badge of Merit.

On April 10, 1818, Prince Freeman, an African-American veteran of the Revolutionary War, applied for a pension in Windham County, Vermont. At that point, he was a farmer in Grafton, Vermont. He had first enlisted in May of 1777 as a private in Captain Bulkley's company, in the 3rd Connecticut Regiment, commanded by Samuel Blachley Webb. Freeman served until the end of the war, and was honorably discharged in 1783, on the 8th day of June. After the war, Freeman applied for a bounty land warrant, and moved to Vermont. However, his pension claims that in 1818 he was “destitute of property [and] advanced in years”—aged sixty-two; he further states that he had two young children dependent on him for support. Having been injured in the war, Freeman was unable to work, and so applied for a pension—and received it, being issued eight dollars per month under the decision of Judge Phineas White. Freeman, according to his discharge papers, was honored with the Badge of Merit (the precursor to the Purple Heart Medal) by General George Washington for his six years of service. The Badge of Merit was created by Washington for the purpose of honoring ordinary soldiers, alongside the Honorary Badges of Distinction. By creating this badge, Washington allowed for the recognition of regular soldiers, not solely officers. Not only a good deed, the Badge of Merit was an inexpensive way to honor soldiers after the Continental Congress ordered Washington to stop promoting soldiers in 1782. It is the oldest military decoration, but not the oldest award; Congress awarded the Fidelity Medallion—a civilian honor—to three privates who had captured the British spy John André, a co-conspirator of Benedict Arnold, in 1780.

The Badge of Merit

Works cited:

Johnston, Henry P., editor. The Record of Connecticut Men of the Military and Naval Service during the War of the Revolution 1755-1783. 1889. Genealogical Publishing, 1997.

Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty–Land–Warrant Application Files (RG 15) Pension for Prince Freeman S: 39549. National Archives and Record Administration

George Washington, "7 August 1782, General Orders." The Writings of George Washington, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office).

“Military Badges.” George Washington’s Mount Vernon

Hudgins, Bill. "The Origins of the Purple Heart." American Spirit, Nov.-Dec. 2014, pp. 36-40.

Emily Bigioni is a volunteer at the David Library and a sophomore at Princeton High School. She has been volunteering since July 2016, and currently works Saturday afternoons. Emily has a love of history, and enjoys reading and researching the Library’s primary source documents.

Patron's Perspective: Larry Kidder on the Reliability of Pension Records

In this installment of Patron's Perspective, regular Library Patron Larry Kidder provides further insights from his research on the New Jersey Militia through the Revolutionary War pension records. Larry points out that the value of these pension files does not lie solely with the details they shed on battles and engagements: in many respects, the pensions show us those aspects of the Revolution and the experience of warfare during the period that do not often appear in conventional histories.

WPT III 



True Confessions: How Reliable are Pension File Depositions?

By Larry Kidder

American Revolution veteran pension files are a vast resource that can aid any research project focusing on individual soldiers or seeking answers to exactly what units at the company level did in specific situations. Since the depositions of veterans were made many years after the war and when the deponents were of an advanced age, one naturally wonders just how accurate any information in them can be. Alfred F. Young in The Shoemaker and the Tea Party discusses human memory and his experience in using pension files. In general, he believes that the human memory is not all that bad. Joseph Plumb Martin wrote an entire book of his memoirs of the Revolution at the same stage in life as the pension applicants and his account has proven very useful to historians to the point where it is almost ubiquitous in works on the revolution. So, the pension depositions are likely to have useful information.

African-American Narratives in Pension Files

In honor of Black History Month, the remaining entries for February will focus on the Library's records touching on African-American experiences during the Revolutionary Era of 1750-1800. Amongst our most important microfilm holdings are the Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty land warrant application files, part of Record Group 15 at the US National Archives and Records Service. Our microfilm copies are filed as Film 27, and contain some applications from African-American patriots. Two in particular stand out.

Patron's Perspective: Larry Kidder on the New Jersey Militia

Today's entry was contributed by Larry Kidder, a regular Library patron and teacher at the Hun School in Princeton. Larry details his experiences in recovering the experiences of New Jersey's militia during the Revolution and shows the role that research plays in public historical interpretation.

WPTIII


Researching New Jersey Militia: Lessons Learned and Avenues Opened


by Larry Kidder


Up until about six months ago my research interests had focused on the Continental Line and I was pretty comfortable with techniques to investigate both individual soldiers and units. Taking on a project involving the New Jersey militia to obtain background information for a new interpretive program being developed by Howell Living History Farm in Hopewell caused me to rethink how to use well-known tools in new ways. My first attempts to investigate the company commanded by Henry Phillips of Hopewell Township in the First Hunterdon Regiment led me to doubt that I was going to find very much. However, with Librarian Kathie Ludwig’s encouragement, help and advice I began to make some breakthroughs and consequently I have become very excited about this research project.

Discovering Elizabeth Poole

Patron's Perspective


Discovering Elizabeth Poole at the David Library


One of our patrons, Kimberly Hess, sent me the fascinating story of Elizabeth Poole, which she unearthed doing research at the David Library. The Pension Records she used hold countless stories of long forgotten patriots - and in this case, the story of one remarkable woman.


--Patrick Spero 

I was fortunate to make a discovery at the David Library about 24 years ago when I began doing genealogical research. With the help of a librarian, I located the widow's pension application for my fifth great-grandmother, Elizabeth Stillwagon, which she made when she was 84 years old. This document suddenly brought to life Elizabeth and her husband, Peter, in ways that other documents could not. Because of the events in their lives during and after the Revolution, Elizabeth did not have documents to prove her marriage and did not know anyone alive who could prove her husband's service during the war. To apply for a pension, she told her story in great detail under oath.