African American Sailors
Because of manpower shortages at sea, both the Continental navy and Royal Navy signed African Americans into the navy. Even southern colonies, which worried about putting guns into the hands of slaves for the army, had no qualms about using blacks to pilot vessels and to handle the ammunition on ships. In state navies, some blacks served as pilots, South Carolina had significant numbers of black pilots.
Some African Americans had been captured from the Royal Navy and used by the Patriots on their vessels. Throughout the war, blacks served as seamen on British vessels – where they generally proved to be much more willing and able than their press-ganged British counterparts.
Read more about this topic: African Americans In The Revolutionary War
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