Massasoit Guards
The Massasoit Guards were an African-American
History
Founding
After Congress passed the
The group was founded in 1854 by John Coburn, a Beacon Hill clothing retailer and co-owner of a profitable gaming house. Coburn was a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee and treasurer of the New England Freedom Association, both organizations dedicated to helping fugitive slaves. Coburn also personally served as captain of the Massasoit Guards.[2] The unit was named for Massasoit, a 17th-century Wampanoag leader. Abolitionist William Cooper Nell remarked on the choice of name in 1855:
Perhaps, as the name of Attucks has already been appropriated by colored military companies in New York and Cincinnati, they accepted Massasoit as their patron saint. He was one of those Indian chiefs, who, in early colonial times, proved himself signally friendly to the interests of the Old Bay State.[3]
That same year, the editor of the Boston Evening Telegraph questioned the wisdom of creating an all-black company:
And we are somewhat at a loss to see why our colored friends, who so reasonably objected to being set apart as a class in the schools, should now voluntarily set themselves apart as a class in the military.[4]
The group may have come together informally before 1854. According to historian Mary Ellen Snodgrass, several members of the Massasoit Guards were involved in the rescue of Shadrach Minkins in 1851. Minkins had escaped slavery in Virginia and was working in Boston when he was arrested by federal marshals and imprisoned in the court house. A group of about 20 black activists led by Lewis Hayden stormed the court house and rescued Minkins by force. John Coburn was among those arrested in connection with the rescue, but was acquitted of all charges.[5]
Legal struggles
During the mid-1850s, attorney Robert Morris repeatedly petitioned to include the Massasoit Guards in the
Morris and other advocates emphasized that blacks were native-born American citizens, unlike the immigrants who, at that time, were arriving in large numbers at the Port of Boston. Morris once remarked before the legislature's militia committee, "Some of the petitioners whom I have the honor to represent, can trace back their ancestry to a time long before an Englishman or any white foreigner stood upon American ground." William J. Watkins was more explicit: "All we ask is that you treat us as well as you do the Irish, German, Hungarian." Despite the appeal to nativism, which was on the rise in Massachusetts, their petitions were denied.[7] Eventually the Massasoit Guards gave up in frustration and disbanded.[6]
See also
- 54th Massachusetts Regiment
- Military history of African Americans
- History of African Americans in Boston
- Montgomery Guards
References
- ^ "Boston African American NHS Park Brochure, Side 2" (PDF). National Park Service.
- ^ ISBN 9781317474401.
- ^ Nell, William Cooper (1855). The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution: With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons: to which is Added a Brief Survey of the Condition and Prospects of Colored Americans. Boston: Robert F. Wallcut. p. 11.
- ^ "New Colored Military Company" (PDF). The Liberator. August 17, 1855. p. 131. Reprinted from The Boston Telegraph.
- ISBN 9781317454168.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz, Stephen (March 1, 2013). "First Equality, Then Guns". The New York Times.
- ISBN 9780199702206.
External links
Further reading
- Beshara, Christopher J. (October 9, 2009). "The Hidden History of Black Militant Abolitionism in Antebellum Boston". University of Sydney.
- Horton, James Oliver; Horton, Lois E. (1993). "The Affirmation of Manhood: Black Garrisonians in Antebellum Boston". In Jacobs, Donald M. (ed.). Courage and Conscience: Black & White Abolitionists in Boston. Indiana University Press. pp. 127–168. ISBN 9780253207937.