Monthly Archives: February 2021

I would like to bring some attention to the false claims that have been circulating through the town of Freedom regarding tax reductions and road repair the claims being they are entirely dependent upon the installation of wind turbines.

In fact, the certificate for the turbines to be built is in limbo as the New York State Siting Board and the developer, Invenergy, are in litigation in the 4th Appellate Court.

The Cattaraugus County town of Freedom is facing yet another critical election in 2021. Any claims by any candidate to have school or county taxes reduced or roads improved are false. At this time, town taxes would NOT be fully eliminated because of the wind project.

Per Exhibit 27 of the application revision Invenergy submitted to the state Department of Public Service in July 2019, Invenergy is only expected to give Pioneer Central School District $268,000 toward the districts $58.6 million budget (2020-2021). That is only 0.4% of Pioneers budget.

How likely is it that the Pioneer Board of Education going to reduce taxes and how many dimes do you think it would add up to?

Per Exhibit 27 of the application revision, Invenergy would only give Cattaraugus County $360,000 toward its $250 million budget (2020), only 0.1% of the countys budget. How is that pathetic percentage going to provide for a tax reduction for county residents?

Per the Host Community Agreement signed by Town Supervisor Randy Lester and voted for by Ron Ashworth and Ann Marie Dixon of the former Freedom Town Board, the town would receive $3,800 per megawatt generated, while Farmersville, Centerville, Rushford and Arcade all signed for $5,950 per megawatt.

This only allows for approximately $429,000 in host community payments to the town of Freedom. However, the 2021 Freedom tax levy is $522,000. There will still be town taxes to pay to have the largest turbines on land in the entire United States near our homes, which will ultimately reduce our property values and cause up to 107 hours of shadow flicker and noise above World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

It is possible for the town of Freedom to adopt another towns Host Community Agreement in its entirety to be able to obtain the same $5,950 per megawatt; however, Randy Lester and Dustin Bliss, who were notified on Jan. 27, 2020, that they were able to get more money for the town, failed to acknowledge the appropriate procedures to obtain that increase. Freedoms agreement remains at $3,800 per megawatt.

You may request copies of the Host Community Agreements at each of the town clerks offices to verify.

There have been false claims related to Freedom receiving new roads should the wind turbines be installed. What Bliss, Lester, Art Baker and other pro-wind candidates have failed to mention is that Invenergy would only repair the small section of town road they would use to haul to at least the condition that existed prior to the Commencement of Construction.

When will Invenergy consider the beginning of Commencement of Construction?

The uses of town roads by the following vehicles shall not trigger the Commencement of Construction: pickup trucks or similar light duty vehicles, drilling rigs used for geotechnical inspections, trucks delivering excavators or other earthmoving equipment.

If you have five potholes in your road and then Invenergy causes there to be 10 potholes after they truck in excavators and other earthmoving equipment, Invenergy can choose to leave 10 potholes in your road when they are done because the Road Use Agreement contract signed by Lester will only repair and reconstruct the Haul Roads ... to at least the condition that existed prior to the Commencement of Construction.

The only road repairs would be to about 14 miles of Freedom town roads out of the 49 centerline miles of Freedom town roads, per the state Department of Transportation. You may request a copy of the Road Use Agreement from the Freedom town clerks office to verify.

Anyone with further questions or concerns may contact me at freedomandjustice1776@gmail.com.

(Stephanie Milks lives in the town of Freedom.)

Follow this link:

RTW: Be skeptical of candidate claims in the town of Freedom - Olean Times Herald

The eagle has landed.

Freedom, a bald eagle that made headlines in 2016 after he was daringly rescued on July 4th by a U.S. Army veteran, has a new home.

He took flight Thursday by airplane to New Jersey, where he will reside as an exhibition bird at the Turtle Back Zoo.

He may have moved to the Garden State, but Freedom's thrilling story will remain part of Minnesota lore.

It begins in Chisago County, July 4, 2016. A young eagle was found dangling from a 75-foot pine tree for 2 days. His foot had been caught in fishing wire and baling twine that had gotten lodged in the branches during one of the fledgling's first flights. No ladder was tall enough to reach the bird, who was presumed dead.

Jason Galvin, a sharpshooter who had done two tours in Afghanistan, thought otherwise. He sent 150 bullets toward the branches, chipping away at the branch and twine until the bird fell to safety.

Freedom, as the eagle was dubbed by his rescuer, became an instant celebrity.

He spent a year in recuperation at the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota. During that time, his talons fell off, which meant he wouldm't survive if he returned to the wild. Instead, he got a coveted job at the center, where birds with disabilities reside and educate visitors about their species.

Three and a half years later, he has landed a new gig.

"Freedom has been an amazing education ambassador bird here at the center," said Victoria Hall, executive director of the Raptor Center. "When people come in to the center, he's great to look at from his enclosure. But he hasn't adapted as well to coming out of his enclosure and doing programs on the glove. He gets more nervous than we like to see, indicating that he's not settled into that role."

Freedom might have been content to stay inside, but interaction is a key component in the life of an educational bird. "It gives them new sights and experiences," Hall said. "It's important for their welfare."

When the center realized Freedom might be happier to be purely on exhibit, officials sought a new home for him, one with more space for him to spread his wings.

They found a match in West Orange, N.J. The Turtle Back Zoo had just launched a free-flighted eagle exhibit and needed a bird.

"Freedom is going to join their brand-new exhibit, where he can fly and continue telling the stories of eagles to the public," Hall said.

To get there, Freedom took a commercial flight from MSP airport. A volunteer for th Raptor Center made a custom crate for him that would allow him to stretch his wings while in the plane's cargo hold. Because of the forecast of extreme cold temperatures in Minnesota, the trip had to be moved up so it would be safe for Freedom to travel.

Center officials dropped Freedom off at the airport Thursday morning, and he arrived in New Jersey to meet his new handlers in the afternoon.

The departure was bittersweet. Freedom was the center's biggest name bird, with a one-of-a-kind story of rescue and resilience.

"He has a great personality and he's a magnificent bird," Hall said. "He's going to live another 20 to 30 years, so we wanted to find the absolute best environment to make sure we give him the best quality of life.

"We're definitely going to miss Freedom," she added. "But we're so excited."

Sharyn Jackson 612-673-4853 @SharynJackson

Continued here:

A Minnesota sharpshooter rescued an eagle caught in tree. Now the raptor has found a forever home. - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Dion Diamond grew up in Petersburg, Va. a totally segregated town for the first 18 years of his life.

But he refused to be limited by that world view, and in 1959 took matters into his own hands, staging his own personal sit-in.

I would go into the local five and dime store, go to the white-only lunch counter, only to be told I couldnt be served, and I would sit, Diamond said at an event Thursday sponsored by Easton, Weston and Redding organizations to kick off their Black History Month programming.

And while hes seen progress with desegregation throughout the country, and noted that Black politicians and police chiefs now serve in places where he was once arrested for protesting and more integrated families are on television, he cautioned there remained work to do.

If you look at racial issues today, dont think that we have made it to the promised land, he said. Youve got to carry the torch again and take it down the road a wee bit more.

Diamond was one of three early civil rights activists known as Freedom Riders who spoke at Thursdays event. The other panelists were Charles Person, who was on the first Freedom Ride, and Joan Browning, who was expelled from her white womens college for attending a Black church and was on one of the last Freedom Rides.

The Freedom Riders were civil activists who rode interstate buses throughout the South during the spring and summer of 1961 to show that a 1960 Supreme Court ruling that made it illegal to segregate public buses, bus terminals and restaurants serving interstate buses wasnt being enforced.

The rides began in May 1961 and lasted seven months. The Interstate Commerce Commission ultimately issued new regulations with fines of up to $500 that eventually ended segregated bus facilities.

The Freedom Rides were important, Person said. It was one of the first major campaigns where, in the end when the edict was passed, it affected every state in the union. That was a good thing because you didnt have to replicate it in each state like we had to do in the sit-ins.

Person got involved while he was studying at Morehouse College, a historically Black college in Atlanta. Before the rides, he was involved in the sit-ins, marches and boycotts. He was arrested in February 1961 and spent 10 days in solitary confinement for singing too loud, he said.

Person said he was trained in nonviolence tactics and so readily applied for the Freedom Rides when the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, asked for student volunteers.

At that time, I would have volunteered to go anywhere, any time, to fight segregation, he said.

He was beaten during the first ride in Alabama; the damage included a lump the size of his fist at the base of his skull he carried until it was surgically removed in 1996.

He also said he soon learned the other bus on the ride had been stopped by white protesters and Ku Klux Klan members who smashed the windows, beat the riders and threw a firebomb into the bus.

Diamond was also among the first Freedom Riders. He continued fighting segregation while attending Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, D.C., which itself wasnt segregated so the students focused on civil rights activities across the river in Virginia. After successful sit-ins and protests, Diamond said he signed up for the Freedom Rides.

On May 24th of 1961, I left school thinking I was going to be gone on a long weekend, he said. That long weekend lasted two years and three months. That was the bus that went into Jackson, Mississippi, from Montgomery.

He was arrested in Jackson.

Once he was released, he stayed to register voters in Mississippi and did sit-ins in Maryland. He was arrested again in Louisiana and charged with seven different crimes as he tried to recruit students to help with voter registration.

I was charged with criminal anarchy. They said that I was trying to overthrow the government of the state of Louisiana, Diamond said. In fact, now that I think about it, I was guilty of that. That state had laws that said segregation was legal and thats what I was trying to overthrow.

All three speakers said activism is built on the work of those who came before, both for them in the 1960s and with Black Lives Matter today.

We didnt come out of nowhere, Browning said. We came out of a long history of resistance.

They said it was important to know the history and build on that.

Dont forget where the history of our country is, Diamond said. Please keep trying to get equal rights for all of us.

They also offered advice for young people organizing Black Lives Matter events: marching designated routes that return to the starting point so participants can return home safely; not having events at night, and making sure there is a clear mission so people know what you stand for. They also cautioned against people trying to hijack the movement.

They said there was a strong sense of community among the Freedom Riders that was fostered from their training and time together which, they said, isnt apparent in some movements around the world today where people organize online.

I would have died for the other Freedom Riders and they would have died for me, Browning said.

Within Connecticut, they said its important for affluent communities to address disparities, especially in terms of schools where they can ensure students have access to the same quality of resources and technology.

Wiley Mullins, one of the events leaders, said the Freedom Riders visited Darien and Bridgeports high schools on their last visit to Connecticut in 2017.

Theres an absolute stark difference, yet all of those kids are asked to compete in the same room, Mullins said.

Browning said her answer for why she, as a white woman, decided to join the Freedom Rides, makes the same point.

Were all limited by not taking advantage of all the skills and all the resources and developing the children to the best they can be, she said. Its not doing something for the less advantageous, its doing something thats good for all of us.

kkoerting@newstimes.com

See the original post:

Carry the torch: Freedom Riders reflect on civil rights and Black Lives Matter movements - Westport News

State Journal Managing Editor Chanda Veno was awarded the second annual Jon Fleischaker Freedom of Information Award for daily newspapers in Kentucky.

The award recognizes her ongoing coverage of an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against former Franklin County Regional Jail Chief Deputy Jailer Kelly Rouse.

The award is presented by the Associated Press and is named for Fleischaker, who is the author of the Open Meetings and Open Record Laws in Kentucky and serves as general counsel to the Kentucky Press Association and numerous other newspapers.

The award recognizes his lifelong commitment to the First Amendment and is presented to one Kentucky journalist in the daily division, weekly division and intercollegiate division for their use of public records to shed light on an important community matter and to effect public policy change.

I am honored to receive the Jon Fleischaker Freedom of Information Award, Veno said. But more importantly, I am glad the taxpayers of Franklin County were given the opportunity to view an unredacted copy of the investigation report that cost the county more than $14,000.

Rouse was placed on paid administrative leave in mid-May 2018 while an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at the jail was conducted by a Lexington law firm.

The following month, Katherine Coleman and Scott Miller, of Lexington-based Sturgill, Turner, Barker & Maloney, PLLC, released their investigative report and charged the county $14,505.17. On June 30, 2018, then-Jailer Rick Rogers accepted Rouses retirement.

The State Journal filed an open records request with County Attorney Rick Sparks for a copy of the investigation report, which was received more than a month later with heavy redactions. However, parts of the report that werent blacked out concluded that he was found to have participated in misconduct.

The newspaper made an appeal to the Attorney Generals Office for an unredacted copy of the investigation report and was denied. In that August 2019 ruling, the AGs office stated that Sparks did not violate the Open Records Act by redacting the report.

The State Journal, represented by Jeremy S. Rogers of Dinsmore & Shohl law firm of Louisville, appealed that decision and on Sept. 3, 2020, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd sided with the newspaper, ruling he was unable to find any aspect of the investigation report to be exempt from the Open Records Act. Later that day, Sparks forwarded the full report.

The taxpayers paid for this report, Shepherd wrote. They have a right to view it in full.

No criminal charges were brought against Rouse, who retired when the law firm announced its findings and was never disciplined by the county.

On Friday, open meetings and records expert Amye Bensenhaver, who wrote open government opinions for six Kentucky attorneys general and informally advises The State Journal on access issues, congratulated the newspaper.

The State Journal represents the best in local investigative reporting. It is a worthy recipient of the Jon Fleischaker Freedom of Information Award for its dogged pursuit of the Kelly Rouse story, its aggressive use of open records laws to expose the truth, and its refusal to stand down when litigation became its only option, she said. "I am honored to work with The State Journals outstanding staff and management.

Continued here:

SJ's Veno wins Jon Fleischaker Freedom of Information Award - State-Journal.com

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is among the fund's supporters.

February 5, 2021, 6:35 PM

5 min read

The California Black Freedom Fund has set the goal of raising $100 million over the next five years from various sponsors to directly support "Black-led power-building organizations," it announced this week.

The initiative has received backing from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan's philanthropic organization, and has amassed an initial investment of some $34.2 million.

In this Feb. 25, 2016, file photo, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of the social media platform Facebook, and his wife Pricilla Chan pose for a photo before an event in Berlin.

The fund aims to provide Black-led community organizing efforts in the Golden State with the "sustained investments and resources they need to eradicate systemic and institutional racism," according to a statement released Thursday.

"Building a better future for everyone starts with centering those who have been politically, socially, and economically marginalized," Chan, a co-founder of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, said in a statement. "We support the California Black Freedom Fund and its work to ensure that Black-led organizations and movements have the power, resources, and recognition to continue their missions and make racial equity a reality in California."

The initiative comes after a year marked by protests over police brutality against Black Americans that sparked a nationwide reckoning over longstanding systemic racism.

In this June 2, 2020, file photo, protestors gather in front of a row of LAPD officers during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd in Hollywood, Calif.

It also comes as the coronavirus pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on Black communities, further exposing racial inequities in the U.S.

"To make racial justice and equity real in California, philanthropy needs to elevate its investments in Black organizers that are focused on advocacy, organizing and holding our institutions accountable -- something that we call power-building," Lateefah Simon, a supporter of the initiative and the president of the Oakland-based racial justice organization the Akonadi Foundation, said in a statement.

"The vision of the California Black Freedom Fund is to bring justice to our communities by making sure Black-led organizations are sufficiently supported and strong, and their leaders are galvanized," Simon added.

Fellow supporter of the fund Cathy Cha, the CEO of the charitable grant foundation the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, added, "Over the past year, we've seen Black communities across the country step up boldly as the conscience of our nation to challenge the status quo."

She stated the new fund represents an "opportunity to build on that momentum and support Black-led organizations and a movement that can keep racial justice front and center and reimagine a better future for all of us."

The California Black Freedom Fund will begin by investing $6 million in three groups: the Black Census and Redistricting Hub (an organization that aims to maximize census participation in Black communities), the Black Equity Collective (a group that supports the long-term infrastructure of Black-led social justice organizations), and PICO California's Live Free/Bring the H.E.A.T. (a collective advocating for overhauls to the current policing system).

The freedom fund has already garnered a slew of private sector supporters, including JPMorgan Chase, and aims to reach its $100 million goal through further corporate and individual donations.

See the rest here:

California Black Freedom Fund launches $100 million initiative to support 'Black-led organizing' - ABC News

Responding to Hong Kongs Education Bureau (EDB) announcing its new guidelines and curriculum in relation to safeguarding national security, Amnesty international Hong Kongs Programme Manager Lam Cho Ming said:

The new measures on school management and national security education, including the establishment of taskforces to monitor student behaviour and activities, would significantly curb freedom of expression on campus in Hong Kong.

Banning expression of political opinion on campus is not a national security issue; it is a sweeping restriction and a blatant human rights violation. National security must not be used to deny students the right to express different political views.

According to the guidelines provided by the Bureau, school governance authorities will be asked to prohibit students and teachers from participating in political activities and expressing political views on campus. Books and teaching materials containing information that may endanger national security are also to be removed. However, the authorities overly broad and vague definition of national security may further silence opposition views on campus.

International human rights law states that governments can only restrict rights in response to specific threats of the use of force that threaten a states existence or territorial integrity; peaceful political discussions and activities on campus are far from that.

The Hong Kong government must not use national security as a pretext to unnecessarily censor freedom of expression on campus.

Background:

The Education Bureau (EDB) issued circulars to schools on Thursday (4 February) to provide guidelines on school administration in relation to safeguarding national security, including details on the implementation of learning and teaching resources for national security education in the school curriculum.

The Bureau required school governance authorities to prevent and stop on-campus political activities, including displaying items advocating independence of Hong Kong, chanting political slogans and forming human chains. It said such activities may be in breach of the Basic Law, the National Security Law and all laws applicable to Hong Kong, for the purpose of enhancing students sense of national security, national identity and law-abiding awareness.

School governance authorities are also required to form specific taskforces overseeing areas of school administration, staff management and student discipline, in order to create a peaceful and orderly school environment and atmosphere.

According to international human rights law, expressions can only be punished on national security grounds if the authorities can demonstrate a clear and imminent threat of violence. In particular, if done peacefully, advocacy for a change in government or government policy, criticism or even insult to a states institutions or its symbols, or exposure of human rights violations, must not be penalized.

Excerpt from:

Hong Kong: New national security guidelines on schools further stifle freedom of expression on campus - Amnesty International

Father Charles BoberFaith Forum

There is a lot of talk today about freedom. I know that there is a political side to that, but it is still an important part of our American way of life. Why is the Catholic Church not more out in front of all this and strongly supporting our freedoms?

Freedom is a rather complex term these days that means many different things to different people. The Catholic Church is not at all afraid to speak about the importance of freedom. But it does so from a unique perspective that transcends any national conversation, and is rooted in a reality about which the Church has a great deal to offer.

The Catholic Church believes that human freedom is an essential component of human identity. It is not something benevolently bestowed by any government but something that comes from the Creator.

But it is not enough to promote freedom without considering the responsibilities that come with it. Some people see it as freedom from something but not freedom for. Why do we feel comfortable talking about our freedom to have no restraints, but speak so little about our freedom to do the good, the just and the uplifting? So often, we find that discussion of ones freedom is limited to the ability to do what I want. Freedom can never be viewed in isolation.

Within Catholic teaching there is never limitless freedom. Our personal freedom must be seen within the context of the rights of others and the common good. My freedom only extends as far as another persons rights. That was seen clearly in the long public debate about the freedom to smoke cigarettes anywhere one wants. That freedom became curtailed by concern for the health of others, similar to the current debate about choosing not to wear a face covering during this pandemic and risking the physical health and lives of others.

The Church benefits from the experience of centuries.It is skeptical of the exaltation of freedom without attention to the responsibilities and the common good. The Church has watched and suffered under freedoms that were applied to only a few, or that led to anarchy. In some cases freedom was denied to many in favor of the powerful, rich or the members of a single race, religion or culture.

Freedom can be taken to extremes that actually imprison. This is true of those who find themselves making bad decisions in the name of freedom. People spend a lifetime recovering the freedom that they gave away.

The Catholic Church understands freedom as an essential element of our human life. But it does so in the context of responsibility and the rights of others. Freedom seen as totally subjective or isolated can lead to personal suffering and communal chaos.

Photo credit: Dena Koenig Photography

Like Loading...

Link:

Freedom, and restraint - Pittsburgh Catholic

The 1st Rhode Island Regiment, widely regarded as the first Black battalion in U.S. military history, originated, in part, from George Washingtons desperation.

In late 1777 during the American Revolution, the Continental Army, led by General Washington, faced severe troop shortages in its war with the British. No less than 2,898 men now in camp [are] unfit because they are barefoot and otherwise naked, Washington wrote to Congress, begging for material support. Disease claimed nearly 2,000 soldiers during the armys winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. When enough white men couldnt be persuaded to enlist in the depleting army with bounties of land and money, Congress resorted to the draft. Its mandate: Each state must fill a quota of militias, based on its population.

Rhode Island, the smallest state with a population under 60,000 on the eve of the Revolution, needed to fill two battalions. When the state couldnt recruit enough white men, its leaders appealed to Washington to allow both free and enslaved Black men to enlist.

As both a slaveowner and commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from its formation in 1775, Washington had long opposed the use of Black soldiers, fearing that armed Black men would incite a rebellion among enslaved people and alienate Southern slaveholders. But over time, the harsh realities of a failing war effort called for Americas founding fathers to make some pragmatic decisions to preserve their nations future.

The 1st Rhode Island Regiment, widely recognized as the Americas first Black military regiment, didnt start out that way. From its inception in 1775 as a part of the Rhode Island Army of Observation to its reorganization as the 1st Rhode Island in 1777 and its recruitment of Black soldiers to their own unit starting in February 1778, the regiment was one of the few in the Continental Army to serve all seven years of war. The unit distinguished itself in battles from the Siege of Boston to the Battle of Rhode Island and beyond to Yorktown.

READ MORE: 7 Black Heroes of the American Revolution

For the Continental Army, the use of Black soldiers had proved one of the wars most controversial issues. Lord Dunmore, Britains colonial governor of Virginia, infuriated that states slaveholding class when in 1775 he declared martial law and promised freedom to any enslaved person who abandoned his owner and joined the British forces. Owners encouraged their enslaved workers to resist the temptation to ruin your selves and promised pardons to those who returned within 10 days of their flight. Still, the promise of freedom inspired an estimated 20,000 enslaved men to flee and enlist with British forces. One of Washingtons enslaved workers, Henry Washington, escaped Mount Vernon to join Dunmores Ethiopian Regiment, a group of 300 escaped Black men who were the first to respond to the proclamation.

General Washington feared Lord Dunmores work and wanted his efforts crushed. Otherwise, like a snow ball in rolling, [Dunmores] army will get size, the future first president wrote tohis aide-de-camp, Joseph Reed. So shortly after Lord Dunmores bold appeal, Washington asked Congress to allow free Black men to enlist in the Continental Army. Lord Dunmores Proclamation changed Washingtons thinking about employing African Americans in the Continental Army, according to Philip Morgan, professor of early American historian at Johns Hopkins University. Clearly Washingtons reversal on Black troops had much to do with his fears of what Dunmore might achieve, he wrote. Henceforth Washington commanded a racially integrated force.

READ MORE: The Ex-Slaves Who Fought With the British

Soldiers of the American Revolution: (L-R) African American of the First Rhode Island Regiment; New England militiaman; frontier rifleman wearing a Virginia hunting shirt; French officer in a blue coat with red facing.

Everett Collection

General James Mitchell Varnum, an attorney and one of Washingtons most trusted officers, became the most ardent supporter of forming a Black regiment in Rhode Island. One of his most radical proposals to Washington was to counter the shortfall of white recruits with enslaved men, along with free Black and Indian men. It is imagined that a battalion of Negroes can easily be raised there, Varnum wrote to Washington, who forwarded the proposalwithout tacit approval or disapprovalto the Rhode Island General Assembly, where it was given the go-ahead.

The Slave Enlistment Act, passed in February 1778, stipulated that any enslaved person accepted to the 1st Rhode Island be immediately discharged from the service of his master or mistress, and be absolutely free, as though he had never been encumbered without any kind of servitude or slavery. It also mandated financial compensation for owners who lost their enslaved workers to the new regimentup to $400 each in colonial dollars. More than 130 enslaved men from all over the state joined the Black regiment in the first several months after the act went into effect. They did so despite propaganda spread by disgruntled slaveholders who, in trying to quell an exodus of enslaved men, asserted that Black soldiers would be placed in the most frequent front-line danger, and, if captured, would be sold into bondage in the West Indies.

READ MORE: Black Heroes Throughout US Military History

Led by all-white officers, the Black regiment saw its first combat experience at the Battle of Rhode Island. On August 29, 1778, the regiment was on assignment at Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay near Newport, where they had been tasked with guarding a defensive position anchoring the Continental Armys right wing. Over the course of the battle, the regiment drove back three Hessian (German) regiments of the British army. It was in driving back these furious attacks that our Black regiment distinguished itself with deeds of great valor, remembered a regiment member. Yes, this was a regiment of Negroes, fighting for our liberty and independence. Major General John Sullivan spoke for Washingtons satisfaction at the regiments performance when he said, by the best information the commander-in-chief thinks that the regiment will be entitled to a proper share of the honors of the day.

Watch 'Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution' on HISTORY Vault.

The 1st Rhode Island's courageous performance at the Battle of Rhode Island led to more African Americans being enlisted to the Continental Army, but the Slave Enlistment Act was repealed by the Rhode Island legislature less than half a year later, meaning that most subsequent volunteers to the regiment came from the ranks of white or freed Black men.

According to Cameron Boutin, a scholar of the regiment, Congress and the military leadership never fully embraced the recruitment of enslaved people. Permitting enslaved African Americans to serve as soldiers in return for their freedom in units similar to the 1st Rhode Island would have alleviated the American forces manpower shortages, increasing their operational abilities and boosting their efficiency, especially in combat, he wrote. Despite the successful example set by the Rhode Island law of February 1778 and the combat performance of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, many civil leaders across the country maintained their opposition toward recruiting slaves and no large-scale legislation authorizing the enlistment of enslaved individuals was adopted.

READ MORE: How an Enslaved Man-Turned-Spy Helped Secure Victory at the Battle of Yorktown

Continued here:

Americas First Black Regiment Earned Their Freedom by Fighting Against the British - History