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LEXINGTON, Mass. — For Charlie Price, the American Revolution was a topic lightly covered during his school days. He knew of key figures like George Washington and landmark events such as the Battle of Bunker Hill, as well as the eventual victory of the patriots. However, it wasn’t until he became a member of the Lexington Minutemen—a dedicated group of Revolutionary War reenactors—that he discovered the depth and intricacies of the historical narrative.
This Saturday, as they do every year, the Lexington Minutemen will commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington in Massachusetts. Among the figures they will honor is Prince Estabrook, an enslaved man who stood alongside his white compatriots on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775, as British forces approached. Estabrook was wounded in the clash but continued to serve in several military engagements throughout the Revolutionary War.
“I wasn’t shocked that it wasn’t widely known,” said Price, a 95-year-old Black veteran of the Korean War who portrayed Estabrook for half a century. “What did surprise me was discovering there was even one Black soldier involved here.”
As America nears its 250th anniversary, efforts are being made across the country to celebrate Estabrook and other patriots of color, aiming to present a more inclusive and comprehensive account of the nation’s founding.
Telling the whole story
Traditionally, museum exhibits, documentary films, and lectures have highlighted the contributions of white leaders of the American Revolution, such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Paul Revere. However, the narrative is gradually expanding to acknowledge the diverse individuals who played crucial roles in the fight for independence.
Christopher Brown, a British Empire historian at Columbia University, said the Revolution has long been portrayed as a “simple story and a moral story that celebrates American origins and that looks to the American past in a kind of idealized version of what the present is.”
But in recent decades, “a more accurate view of the past” has emerged that showcases the diverse collection of men and women who played critical roles in the fight for freedom.
“There were Black men in the ranks who were fighting in Concord and Lexington and fought on Bunker Hill,” he said. “They knew all of the work that women were doing to support the revolutionary effort. The fact that we didn’t know that is more of a sign of our lack of curiosity and the need for greater research.”
The National Park Service estimates that by the end of the Revolution more than 5,500 patriots of color — including Black and Indigenous people — served on the colonial side, while many runaway slaves fought for the British.
The stories of Black patriots cannot be told without mentioning slavery, which was legal at the time in all 13 Colonies. Some Blacks who fought were enslaved and others fought in the hopes of gaining freedom. Indigenous soldiers made similar calculations, even as tribes fought for their very survival.
But despite the documented military diversity of that time, efforts to promote such stories are under pressure. The Trump administration has ordered the removal or censorship of some exhibits highlighting the history of slavery and enslaved people, the Civil Rights Movement and the mistreatment of Indigenous people.
Roger Davidson, Jr. an associate professor of history at Bowie State University, said failure to recognize that important part of history can impact communities of color today.
“If you’re not seen as having contributed to society, to the military, to any of it, then people can sort of overlook you,” Davidson said. “It plays into, and I hate to put it this way, but it plays into some people’s biases. Why should we pay any attention to you in the present day, politically, socially, economically, if you have not contributed?”
Remembering patriots of color
MA250 has handed out millions of dollars in grants to commemorate the battles across Massachusetts that helped lead to America’s independence. Among the beneficiaries is the Black Heritage Trail in Concord that highlights the lives of Black residents in the town during the Revolution.
Museum exhibitions celebrating Black patriots have also received grants. Among those highlighted is Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Indigenous ancestry who died on March 5, 1770, when British troops fired on a crowd in what is known as the Boston Massacre. Another, Salem Poor, was born enslaved but purchased his freedom before fighting at Bunker Hill.
American Ancestors, a nonprofit history and heritage center in Boston that also received MA250 funding, opens its “Patriots of Color” exhibit next week, throwing a spotlight on the lives of 26 Black and Indigenous men and women who played a role in the American Revolution. They include: Prince Ames, a Black and Narragansett man from Andover, who was forced to join the Continental Army in place of his enslaver; and Paul Cuffe, a Black and Wampanoag businessman, who petitioned the Massachusetts government to reject taxation without representation.
Some of their descendants will attend the opening of the exhibition.
“By telling these lesser known stories, we want to highlight that ordinary people made a tremendous difference in the arc of the country’s history,” Ryan Woods, president and CEO of American Ancestors, said.
The details of Estabrook’s life
Records about Prince Estabrook’s life are scant, but according to the National Park Service, he was likely born in the Lexington area around 1740. His father was enslaved by landowner Benjamin Estabrook, so Prince was born into slavery.
It is unclear what his life was like before he trained as a soldier in the Lexington militia. The Park Service says he was serving under the command of Colonel John Parker on April 19, 1775, when his left shoulder was struck by a musket ball. He recovered from that injury and went on to serve eight years with the militia and the Continental Army.
After the Revolution, he was granted freedom and returned to Lexington, where tax records from 1790 indicate he joined Benjamin Estabrook’s payroll as ‘a non-white freeman.’ It is unclear if he ever married, had children or owned property.
According to family records, he died in 1830, around the age of 90, and was buried in the same cemetery as Benjamin’s son, Nathan, in Ashby, Massachusetts.
Price, who has handed reenactment duties to a younger colleague but still attends the early morning reenactment every year, says it is important to know about the soldier’s life.
“Keep the story alive to make sure that everybody knows, everybody that we can get in touch with, everybody knows that Prince Estabrook was here,” Price said. “He was a viable person. He did his role, he did his part in fighting for the country.”