Patriots of Color

This year, 10 Million Names is launching a groundbreaking initiative:

To identify and build family trees for 75 Patriots of Color who served during the Revolutionary War.

These individuals—Black, Native American, and of mixed descent—played pivotal roles in America's fight for independence, yet their stories remain largely untold.

Many of these brave men, some free and many enslaved, fought for a nation that denied them liberty. Their descendants walk among us today, often unaware of the extraordinary legacy that lives in their family lines.

Why It Matters

We are expanding the Daughters of the American Revolution: Patriots of Color, 1712–1888 database to include searchable family trees for each Patriot and their descendants—unlocking their histories, honoring their names, and connecting families to their roots.

This project will:

Illuminate untold histories of men of color who served in the Revolution.
Build free, accessible family trees using AncesTREES in partnership with National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and FamilySearch.
Engage historians, genealogists, and descendants in restorative, community-driven research.
Offer these resources freely to the public, forever.

Resources

Resources at American Ancestors

Researching Black Patriots and Loyalists During the Revolutionary Era webinar: https://www.americanancestors.org/video-library/researching-black-patriots-and-loyalists-during-revolutionary-era

Index of Revolutionary War Pensioners, 1800-1900 database: https://www.americanancestors.org/search/databasesearch/392/index-of-revolutionary-war-pensioners-1800-1900

Massachusetts Revolutionary War Pensioners’ Receipts, 1799-1807 database: https://www.americanancestors.org/search/databasesearch/185/massachusetts-revolutionary-war-pensioners-receipts-1799-1807

Massachusetts Revolutionary War Pensioners’ Receipts, 1827-1836 database: https://www.americanancestors.org/search/databasesearch/2710/massachusetts-revolutionary-war-pensioners-receipts-1827-1836

Revolutionary War Naval Pensioners' Receipts, 1829-1832 database: https://www.americanancestors.org/search/databasesearch/294/united-states-revolutionary-war-naval-pensioners-receipts-1829-1832

Online Collections and Resources

Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (NARA microfilm group M246): https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2068326

U. S. Rosters of Revolutionary War Soldiers and Sailors, 1775-1783: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2546162

U.S. Revolutionary War Pensions, 1800-1900: https://www.fold3.com/publication/467/revolutionary-war-pensions

United States Census Office, A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services (Washington: Blair and Rives, 1841): https://archive.org/details/acensuspensione00socigoog/mode/2up

Published Studies

William Cooper Nell, The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution: With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons (Boston: Robert F. Wallcut, 1855). https://archive.org/details/coloredpatriotso0000nell

Eric G. Grundset, editor, Forgotten Patriots: African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War (National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, 2008). https://library.nehgs.org/record=b1094942

Glenn A, Knoblock, “Strong and Brave Fellows”: New Hampshire’s Black Soldiers and Sailors of the American Revolution, 1775-1784 (Jefferson, N. C.: McFarland & Company, Publishers, 2003). https://library.nehgs.org/record=b1097816

George Quintal, Jr., Patriots of Color: “A Peculiar Beauty and Merit”: African Americans and Native Americans at Battle Road & Bunker Hill (Boston: Division of Cultural Resources, Boston National Historical Park, 2004). https://library.nehgs.org/record=b1112252

Debra Newman Ham, List of Black servicemen compiled from the War Department collection of Revolutionary War records (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1974). https://library.nehgs.org/record=b1037828

General Books

Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, N. C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1961). https://archive.org/details/negroinamerican00quar/page/n7/mode/2up

Bobby B. Moss and Michael Scoggins, African-American Patriots in the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution (Blacksburg, S. C.: Scotia-Hibernia Press, 2004). https://search.worldcat.org/title/57498327

Judith L. Van Buskirk, Standing in Their Own Light: African American Patriots in the American Revolution (Norman, O. K.: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017). https://search.worldcat.org/title/1035463803

Robert Ewell Greene, Black Courage, 1775-1783: Documentation of Black Participation in the American Revolution (Washington, D. C.: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1984). https://archive.org/details/blackcourage17750000unse

Sidney Kaplan and Emma Nogrady Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution (Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1908). https://archive.org/details/blackpresenceint00kapl/page/n7/mode/2up