Washington pleaded with the Continental Congress for more troops. He asked the Congress to enlist free African Americans. Early in the war, the Southern states persuaded the Congress not to allow African Americans into the Continental Army. Many white people in the South felt uncomfortable about giving guns to African Americans and allowing them to serve as soldiers. In the Southern states with large enslaved populations, whites feared revolts.
African Americans Join the Fight
As the need for soldiers grew, some stated ignored the ban and enlisted African Americans, Rhode Island raised an all African American regiment in 1778. By the war’s end, every state except South Carolina enlisted African Americans to fight.
Historians estimate that as many as 5,000 African Americans joined the Patriots. Among them were Lemuel Hayes and Peter Salem, who fought at Concord. African Americans fought for the same reasons as other Americans. They believed in the Patriots’ cause and or they needed the money. Some soldiers were enslaved African Americans who ran away from slaveholders. Others fought to earn their freedom.
American Victories in New Jersey
The British army settled in New York for the winter of 1776, leaving some troops in New Jersey at Trenton and Princeton. Armies usually called a halt to their wars during winter, and the British were not expecting to fight.
Stationed across the Delaware River from the British camp in New Jersey, Washington saw a chance to catch the British off guard. On Christmas night 1776, Washington took 2,400 troops across the icy river and surprised the enemy at Trenton the next day. The Americans captured more than 900 Hessians. The British sent more reinforcements under the command of Lord Charles Cornwallis, but Washington led his troops away from Cornwallis’s men. Washington then marched the army to Princeton, where they drove away the British. One discouraged British officer wrote in his diary,
“A few days ago the Americans had given up the cause for lost/ Their late success have turned the scale and now they are all Liberty mad again.”
A British Plan for Victory
The British worked out a battle plan for 1777. They would take Albany, New York, and gain control of the Hudson River. This would separate New England from the Middle Colonies.
