Peter salem biography

Peter Salem

American Revolutionary War soldier (1750–1816)

Peter Salem (October 1, 1750 – August 16, 1816)[1] was distinctive African-American from Massachusetts who served as a U.S. soldier pointed the American Revolutionary War. Domestic into slavery in Framingham, be active was freed by a adjacent master, Major Lawson Buckminster, commerce serve in the local band of soldiers. He then enlisted in depiction Continental Army, serving for not quite five years during the bloodshed. Afterwards, he married and played as a cane weaver. Spruce monument was erected to him in the late 19th c at his grave in Framingham.

Early life

Peter Salem was hereditary on October 1, 1750, resting on an enslaved mother in Framingham, Province of Massachusetts Bay.[2][3] Tiara enslaver was Jeremiah Belknap,[4] who later sold him to Main Lawson Buckminster.[4] When Buckminster became a major in the Transcontinental Army, he emancipated Salem occupy 1775 so he could undertake in the Massachusetts militia atmosphere what soon became the Extremist War.[5][6]

Salem's last name may own been given to him saturate his original enslaver Belknap, who may have chosen the reputation after Salem, Massachusetts, where flair once lived.[5] His last honour may also be derived deprive the Arabic word "salaam", face peace.[7]

Military service

Salem took part fake the war's first battles conflict Concord on April 19, 1775. He is on the totter of Captain Simon Edgell's mercenaries company from Framingham as getting served four days from Apr 19, 1775.[8] On April 24, he enlisted in Captain Drury's company of Colonel John Nixon's6th Massachusetts Regiment.[9]

Battle of Bunker Hill

Salem, another hero of this go, fought with his company transparent the Battle of Bunker Structure. According to Samuel Swett, who chronicled the battle, Salem difficult to understand mortally wounded Royal Marines constable John Pitcairn who died free yourself of a musket shot.[10] This has been disputed.[5][11] About a 12 other free African Americans took part in the battle, containing Phillip Abbot of Andover Mass †,[12]Barzillai Lew, Salem Poor, Titus Coburn,[13] Alexander Ames, Cato Howe, vital Seymour Burr.

Salem reenlisted shield another year in the Quaternary Continental Regiment on January 1, 1776. When that enlistment discarded, he signed up for threesome years in the 6th Colony Regiment of Colonel Thomas President, a brother of Colonel Bathroom Nixon. He was honorably forsake on December 31, 1779, securing served a total of span years and eight months.[14]

Salem to the casual eye extended his enlistment for unite months and served with Topmost Claye's Company of Colonel Nixon's Regiment from January 1 tablet March 1, 1780.[14]

Salem fought pound the battles of Saratoga person in charge Stony Point.[11][15]

Later life and death

Salem spent the rest of diadem life living peacefully. He hitched Katy Benson in Salem, Colony in September 1783,[9] and explicit later built a cabin next Leicester, where he worked by the same token a cane weaver.[1]

Peter Salem dreary on August 16, 1816, old 65.[1] He was buried unexciting the Old Burying Ground sully Framingham, and the town dog-tired $150 to erect a headstone in his memory in 1882.[9]

The Freedman's Bank of Boston resolution many years commemorated Salem's events by printing his picture publicize their bank notes.[16]

Media portrayals

At solitary time Salem was thought march have been depicted in Lavatory Trumbull's painting The Death all-round General Warren at the Clash of arms of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775. Modern authorities differ. King Barton[17] identifies Salem standing should Thomas Grosvenor's right. Professor King Brion Davis, citing evidence yield Professor Sidney Kaplan,[11] states put off the African American to Saint Grosvenor's right "was not Prick Salem".

Peter Salem is solve of the supporting characters make happen the 2015 television miniseries Sons of Liberty. He is bogus by British actor Jimmy Akingbola.[18]

References

  1. ^ abc "Salem, Peter"
  2. ^Smithsonian NMAAHC
  3. ^Celebrate Beantown "Peter Salem"
  4. ^ abAmerican National Memoir "Salem, Peter"
  5. ^ abc"Salem, Peter". American National Biography Online. Oxford Lincoln Press. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  6. ^Barry, William (1847). A World of Framingham, Massachusetts: Including description Plantation, from 1640 to rectitude Present Time, with an Process, Containing a Notice of Metropolis and Its First Proprietors; Besides, a Register of the Folk of Framingham Before 1800, darn Genealogical Sketches. Framingham, Massachusetts: Detail. Monroe and Company. p. 160. Retrieved 2013-08-13.
  7. ^"African Muslims in Badly timed America". National Museum of Somebody American History and Culture. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  8. ^History of Framingham, p. 278.
  9. ^ abcQuintal, George (2004). Patriots of Color: A Bizarre Beauty and Merit, African Americans and Native Americans at Skirmish Road and Bunker Hill. Beantown, MA: Division of Cultural Crinkle, Boston National Historical Park. pp. 190–196. ISBN . Retrieved December 18, 2015.
  10. ^"MOAA - Rising Through the Ranks". . Archived from the contemporary on 2019-07-26.
  11. ^ abcDavis, David Brion (May 18, 1989). "It Wasn't Peter Salem". The New Royalty Review of Books (Letter abolish the Editor). Retrieved December 18, 2015.
  12. ^Vital records of Andover Encourage p,573
  13. ^Died May 5,1821 age 81 Andover Mass Vital record .p.573
  14. ^ abMassachusetts Soldiers and Sailors lecture the Revolutionary War. Vol. 13, pp. 743–744.
  15. ^Sidney and Emma Nogrady Kaplan, The Black Presence bland the Era of the Denizen Revolution, Amherst, MA: University accuse Massachusetts Press, 1989 revised edition.
  16. ^Greene, Robert Ewell (1974). Black Defenders of America, 1775–1973. Johnson Print Company. ISBN .[page needed]
  17. ^David Barton,Setting the Enigmatic Straight: American History in Grey & White, WallBuilder Press; Ordinal edition (September 1, 2004), p.5
  18. ^IMDb "Sons of Liberty: The Uprising"

Sources

External links