Peter's War: A New England Slave Boy and the American Revolution

by Joyce Lee Malcolm

A boy named Peter, born to a slave in Massachusetts in 1763, was sold nineteen months later to a childless white couple there. This book recounts the fascinating history of how the American Revolution came to Peter's small town, how he joined the revolutionary army at the age of twelve, and how he participated in the battles of Bunker Hill and Yorktown and witnessed the surrender at Saratoga. Joyce Lee Malcolm describes Peter’s home life in rural New England, which became increasingly unhappy as he grew aware of racial differences and prejudices. She then relates how he and other blacks, slave and free, joined the war to achieve their own independence. Malcolm juxtaposes Peter’s life in the patriot armies with that of the life of Titus, a New Jersey slave who fled to the British in 1775 and reemerged as a feared guerrilla leader. A remarkable feat of investigation, Peter’s biography illuminates many themes in American race relations in New England, the prelude to and military history of the Revolutionary War, and the varied experience of black soldiers who fought on both sides.

Genres: History, Local History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 3, 2009

About the author

Joyce Lee Malcolm is a professor at George Mason University School of Law. A historian and constitutional scholar specializing in British and colonial American history, she focuses on the development of individual rights and on war and society.

She previously taught at Princeton University, Bentley University, Boston University, Northeastern University and Cambridge University. She is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and bye fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge University. Recipient of many awards and grants, she served as a Senior Advisor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program and a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies.

Reviews

[Breck Baumann · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather unremarkable account of the life of two different slaves who took up arms on opposing sides during the Revolutionary War. This is one of those biographies that start off with all signs and sentences showing brilliance, where Malcolm introduces her audience to Peter, sold as a "servant-boy" at the ripe age of one-and-a-half to a New England family in the 1760s. After an interesting history of both his paternal and adopted parents, the book from then on immediately takes a tailspin dive after being over-clogged with a general history of the period—all due to the fact that there's just not enough primary sources on the subject at hand. This is disappointing, as Malcolm's writing and rendition is altogether engaging and well-paced when capturing the turmoil and change of the late-eighteenth century.

The filler-content that takes up most of the chapters revolves around typical American Revolution lore, such as Paul Revere's legendary ride, the Battle of Bunker Hill, Surrenders at both Saratoga and Yorktown, and Benedict Arnold's treason. The latter is so oddly matched up and off topic with this chronicle of two slaves, as Malcolm devotes numerous pages to John André's eventual capture and Arnold's flight—going as far as mentioning André's eventual martyrdom with the British Empire, while not connecting Peter or Titus whatsoever to this series of events. When she does specifically devote time to strictly these two, the narrative is more engrossing and enlightening in seeing how these slaves led such unique and oftentimes adventurous lives during the war:

Titus surely knew the risks of relying on the British, knew of their crass role in the slave trade. On the other hand, the patriots talked of liberty but made no offer of freedom to slaves and were turning them away from their army. He was already on the run and had few options. Patriots would return him to Corlies or sell him in the West Indies. Somehow he managed to elude the patrols. He reached Dunmore safely and offered his service to the British governor. Dunmore duly enlisted him in his new Royal Ethiopian Regiment.

Overall, it was clear before the ending that the lives of both Peter and Titus should have been chronicled in a greater history of slaves during the War for Independence, as there was just not enough primary sources to fully encompass their stories independently. Regrettably, the tangents and parallels to the highlights of the American Revolution take center stage, and don't give these two the justice and spotlight that they likely deserve. Malcolm began with the best of intentions in recognizing and researching both slaves, but failed to realize that the material pertaining to her two subjects offered barely any light to shed on their history.

[Don Glickstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a good attempt to reconstruct the life of a colonial slave who didn't leave much of a paper trail, similar to Jill Lepore's reconstruction of Jane Franklin, Benjamin's sister, in her Book of Ages. But unlike Jill Lepore, when neo-con Joyce Lee Malcolm finds a gap, she just makes up her own facts. While she has a bibliography, she took the lazy person's route of omitting footnotes.

The book is riddled with fake history, but what struck home for me was what she said about British General Charles O'Hara. As a historian myself, I know a fair amount about him. Malcolm said: "Tears rolled down O'Hara's portly cheeks as he rode along" to the Yorktown surrender. That sounds good, but it's just plain made-up. The truth is that contemporaries of O'Hara talked about his handsomeness, and the only portrait of O'Hara we're aware of shows a tough hombre in his prime—unlike rebel generals Henry Knox and Benjamin Lincoln who both portraits and contemporaries say were fat. Just 10 months before the Yorktown surrender, O'Hara fought a pitched battle at Cowan's Ford, NC, and he would have drowned if he hadn't been the in-shape, tough soldier that he was.

More than that, eyewitness accounts of O'Hara at Yorktown (from French and American officers, who later dined with him) marvel at his comportment, professionalism, and charm.

Malcolm has made a name for herself among right-wing circles with her distorted interpretation of the Second Amendment. It's fine to have a different interpretation, but it's not fine to make up your own facts and call yourself a historian. But then that's what right-wingers do.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narrative of two slaves on opposite side of the American Revolution. Peter lived in Lincoln, Massachusetts and argued his way into the militia though only 12 years old. Titus, from New Jersey, look up the British offer of freedom by joining their forces and rising to prominence as a military leader. The author, a Professor of Law at George Mason University, dug deeply into primary sources to write her book.

[Dan Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too often we read about the American Revolution and the author focuses on the "big" names like Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Paul Revere, etc. This book is not one of those at all. The focus here is on Peter, a slave from Lincoln Massachusetts. In addition to the wonderful insights the author gives to the plight of enslaved people, it is also interesting to see how much involvement men from Massachusetts had in the war even after it has moved further south. If I were still teaching the American Revolution to 5th graders I would most definitely use this as a source for material to share with students. The only difficulty I had with the book was getting lost in the names of the main characters sometimes, especially in the early stages of the book.

[Dawn Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book about the Revolutionary War as experienced through the eyes of an American slave boy. The author had to have done so much research and reading of old records to research all of the detail in this book. It was really readable and interesting. If you like history I recommend it!

[Thomas Kaled · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to read about Northern slavery and slaves during the American Revolution. Given the disparate facts about Peter Nelson, the author does a masterful job using source documents, tom weave a story of this obscure character in the larger context of select portions of American history in and around the time of the American Revolution