Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Black Redcoats: The Corps of Colonial Marines, 1814-1816

Black Redcoats: The Corps of Colonial Marines, 1814-1816

Taylor, Matthew

Hardcover

General World HistoryBritish HistoryWar of 1812

Publisher Price: $37.95

ISBN10: 1399034014
ISBN13: 9781399034012
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
Published: May 5 2024
Pages: 224
Weight: 1.15
Height: 1.10 Width: 6.22 Depth: 9.29
Language: English
A fascinating history of a hitherto neglected unit of the Anglo-American War that deserves to be remembered. African Americans are rightly proud of the service of the US Coloired Troops in the American Civil War; they can be proud of this unit too. - Miniature Wargames

During the Anglo-American War of 1812, British forces launched hundreds of amphibious raids on the United States. The richest parts of the United States were slave-states, and thousands of enslaved African Americans fled to British forces in what was to be the largest emancipation of enslaved Americans until the abolition of slavery in the USA. From these refugees from slavery, the British built a force - the Corps of Colonial Marines. Black redcoats, they were a fusion of two great American fears, the return of the British King and an uprising by their own oppressed slaves. The Corps of Colonial Marines turned Britain's campaign on America's coasts from one of harassment to one of existential threat to the new nation. Although small in number, the Colonial Marines - fighting to liberate their own families as much as for Great Britain - exerted a massive psychological impact on the United States which paralysed American resistance with fear of a widespread slave uprising, and allowed British forces in the Chesapeake to burn down Washington DC.

As well as examining this little-remembered part of British military and African-American history, this book will also look to the post-war history of the Colonial Marines, their continued survival as a unique ethnic group in the Caribbean today, and their involvement in the largest act of armed African-American resistance to slavery. The Battle of Negro Fort in 1816 was the only time American forces left American territory to destroy a fugitive slave community - a community led by former Colonial Marines who, when faced with American attack, raised the British flag.

This book brings black history to the fore of the War of 1812, and gives voice those enslaved people who - amidst great power competition between a slave-holding Republic and a slave-holding Empire - demonstrated exceptional bravery and initiative to gain precious freedom for themselves and their descendants.

1 different editions

Also available

Also from

Taylor, Matthew

View All

Also in

War of 1812

View All