Return of the Officers & Privates in the 9th Connecticut Regt. for State Stores. Manuscript document signed by John P. Wyllys as Major Commanding. "Connecticut Line Highlands" [Hudson Highlands, West Point, New York], 10 December 1780. 2pp, 16 3/4 x 13 1/8 in. Military return listing names of soldiers in the 9th Connecticut Regiment of the Connecticut Line under the command of Major John P. Wyllys and their rations for rum. Columns list names, company, rank, and rations. Verso with autograph note signed by Simon Giffin as Quartermaster Sergeant endorsing the return and indicating "Half point of West India Rum for Each Non Commissioned officer & privet on this Return for which thay are to pay the State price." 

Raised at Danbury, Connecticut, in January 1777, the 9th Connecticut Regiment was initially known as Webb's Additional Continental Regiment after its esteemed colonel Samuel Blachley Webb. In the spring of 1780, the regiment was renamed and added to the Connecticut Line. In December 1780, while Webb was a prisoner of war, the 9th Connecticut was under the command of Major John P. Wyllys. Wyllys was a prominent Connecticut officer who graduated from Yale alongside Patriot soldier and spy Nathan Hale. Simon Giffin, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, rose through the ranks during the war and is perhaps best known for his detailed diary and letters which have survived to paint a vivid picture of life for soldiers of the Connecticut Line.

Listed among the privates on this return are at least two identified Black soldiers, Caesar Freeman, 3rd Company, and Jack Freeman, 5th Company. Both names are listed among Connecticut soldiers in Forgotten Patriots: African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War (National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, 2008). Multiple soldiers named "Jack Freeman" are identified in the DAR guide, but Caesar Freeman of Wethersfield can be more specifically identified. "Slavery and Wethersfield" (The Wethersfield Historical Society, 2021) indicates that Caesar Freeman had been manumitted by Elias Williams - with conditions attached. Caesar was released in June 1777 on condition of service for three years in the Continental Army. 

At least 820 African American soldiers and seamen served in the Revolutionary War from Connecticut, representing about 16% of the known 5,000 African American men who served from the 13 Colonies, though some research suggests that the actual number of African Americans who served may have been closer to 10,000 (see National Mall Liberty Fund D.C. "Quick Facts about Connecticut's African American Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War). African Americans served in at least the 1st through 9th Connecticut Regiments, often as privates in integrated units.

African American soldiers serving in the Revolutionary War - whether for Loyalists or Patriots - did so in various capacities, but always they were fighting for freedom. For those fighting for the Patriots, most free Blacks and enslaved were expressly prohibited from enlisting at the start of the war. As the war progressed, however, and the need for soldiers became more pressing, systems were put in place by which enslaved men could earn their freedom by serving in the military and freedmen could enlist. Some Blacks served as substitutes for their enslaver, with the promise of emancipation after the war, as may have been the case for Caesar Freeman.

[Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washiington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe] [African Americana, African American History, Black History]

Condition generally good with expected toning and folds.