Contact Information
Biography Information
Louis Wilson is Professor of African and African American History at Smith College. His present research is focused on two areas: African Americans in the American Revolutionary War and free blacks in Rhode Island prior to the Civil War. His most recent work has been the publication of an article in the book Love Across the Color Line and the completion of the high school text Americans (co-authored, Houghton Mifflin, 2004), a new series of social science text with Houghton and Mifflin. In 1999 he was a Senior Fulbright researcher at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, working on a comparative history of South Africa and the United States. During the Spring 2006 he was a visiting professor of American Studies at the University of Hamburg.
Project Description
The American Revolution was a defining moment in the formation of what became the U.S. of America. The men and women who fought in that conflict have for the most part been memorialized. Unfortunately, the history of Blacks who fought in the war has yet to be written. This study attempts to correct this error in fact. This proposal is to write the history of Black Patriots from Rhode Island. Using only primary documents I have meticulously collected the names, and in many cases the personal and military histories of over 800 men who served in various army units from Rhode Island. I have used a data-base system by Microsoft--ACCESS to order this material in such a way that a meaningful and accurate narrative can be written about these extraordinary Black Patriots from Rhode Island.