yes, so far as the Northern colonies are concerned, but not without much opposition in the courts and legislatures. Virginia also passed an act in 1783 emancipating the slaves who had fought in the Revolution. Many individual slaves were emancipated by special acts of the legislatures for their courage and bravery.

George Washington set his slaves free by his will, and many slave-owners did the same.

The slaves who joined the British army were subjected to all sorts of horrors. Thousands died with small-pox and other contagious diseases. A great number were sent to the West Indies in exchange "for rum, sugar, coffee and fruit."

LAFAYETTE AND KOSCIUSKO.

LaFayette, the brilliant young Frenchman, and Kosciusko, the generous Pole, volunteered their services in behalf of freedom for the Americans during the Revolution. They fought, though, for the freedom of all Americans. LaFayette said in a letter to a Mr. Clarkson: "I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery."

While Visiting America in 1825, he expressed a warm desire to see some of the many colored sol

diers whom he "remembered as participating with him in various skirmishes." He believed in freedom to all men, and to put in practice his antislavery ideas he bought a plantation in French Guiana. There he collected all the "whips and other instruments of torture and punishment, and made a bonfire of them in the presence of the assembled slaves."

'He Gave One Day in each week to the slaves, and as soon as one could earn enough he might purchase another day, and so on until he gained his freedom.

Kosciusko Expressed great sorrow to learn that the colored men who served in the Revolution were not thereby to gain their freedom. He left $20,000 in the hands of Thomas Jefferson, to be used in educating colored children.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE WAR OF 1812.

THE War of the Revolution ended in 1781 at Yorktown. Many of the brave Negroes who shed their blood and helped to win America's liberty from England were, as soon as the war closed, put back into bondage. They were in the "Land of the Free," but themselves slaves. Other troubles arose very soon between England and America. England still kept standing armies in America, and claimed the right to search American vessels for British sailors who had deserted. They often took off American seamen.

One Negro and Two White sailors were taken from the American man-of-war "Chesapeake" after she had been fired upon. Canada gave arms to and incited the Indians in the Northwest against the Americans. Finally, in 1812, war was declared, during Madison's administration.

Negro Troops were very much needed, as the Americans had a very poor navy, and England, having whipped the French, was now ready to turn all her forces against America.

A Call for Volunteers from the Union was

issued, and many thousands of free Negroes answered the call. The slaves were not allowed to enlist in the militia. Gen. Jackson thus spoke to his colored troops:

To the Men of Color-Soldiers: From the shores of Mobile I collected you to arms. I invited you to share in the perils and to divide the glory with your white countrymen. I expected much from you, for I was not uninformed of those qualities which must render you so formidable to an invading foe. I knew that you could endure hunger and thirst and all the hardships of war. I knew that you loved the land of your nativity, and that, like ourselves, you had to defend all that is most dear to man. But you have surpassed all my hopes. I have found in you, united to these qualities, that noble enthusiasm which impels to great deeds.

"Soldiers, the President of the United States shall be informed of your conduct on the present occasion, and the voice of the Representatives of the American nation shall applaud your valor as your General now praises your ardor. The enemy is near. His sails cover the lakes; but the brave are united, and if he finds us contending among ourselves, it will be for the prize of valor, and fame, its noblest reward."

The Battle of New Orleans, we will remember, ended in defeat for the British. Over two thousand

were lost to the British, while the American loss. was seven killed and six wounded. There were

over four hundred Negroes in this battle, and they occupied "no mean place and did no mean service." The British had a battalion of Negroes from the Island of San Domingo in this battle. The idea

of fortifying the city with cotton is said to have been the suggestion of a slave who was a native African, and learned this mode of defence from the Arabs.

Mr. D. Lee Child, in a letter to a friend, states that the famous cotton breast-works, recognized the world over as a stroke of genius on the part of Gen. Jackson, was the suggestion of a colored man, a native African. He gives some data from a Portuguese manuscript to prove that this mode of defence is in practice among the native Africans, who thus defend their wives and children against the Arabs.

NEGROES IN THE NAVY OF 1812.

There seemed to be no discrimination against any class of citizens joining our navy; nor is there now. About one-fifth of the marines were Negroes. That they did valuable service is testified to by numerous commanders. Read what Commander Nathaniel Shaler of the "private armed" schooner "Governor Tompkins" says, in a letter dated