Blogs Gil Troy The Revolutionary Drummer Boy Turned Haitian King
Feb 20, 2018The Revolutionary Drummer Boy Turned Haitian King
tags: slavery,civil rights,Haiti,revolution
Once upon a time, even the wild story of a 12-year-old American Revolutionary drummer boy becoming King of Haiti couldn’t interest Americans because he – along with his fellow soldiers – was black.
As with America in Vietnam, the British Army dominated militarily during the Revolution—until it lost. And like Vietnam, a local fight for independence from colonial rule became a global war.
In 1778, the British surprised American troops in Savannah and captured the city. Georgia was important enough strategically that French forces joined with their American allies to try liberating Savannah. On September 23, 1779, Admiral Charles-Hector Theodat d’Estaing, fresh from failing to dislodge the British from Newport, Rhode Island, demanded Savannah surrender. Four thousand French troops from the West Indies on 37 ships backed up his demand. Foolishly but nobly, he gave the British 24 hours to consider. The British fortified the ramparts and deployed reinforcements...
Read whole article on The Daily Beast.
comments powered by Disqus
News
- Florida Districts to Teachers: Hide Your Books or Risk Felony Charge
- What's Actually Happening in Florida Education?
- What's Behind DeSantis Push to Erase Black History?
- The Story of one of the Few Black Members of Chicago's Secret Abortion Rights Underground
- 100 Years After Rosewood, Just One House Remains
- Julia Schleck on The Function of the University Today
- The Bitter, Contested History of Globalization
- Prof. Hasan Kwame Jeffries on Consulting for Hip Hop at 50 Documentary
- Glenda Gilmore's Bio Shows Artist Romare Bearden Reckoning with the South
- Erika Lee and Carol Anderson on Myths and Realities of Race in American History