Some slaves earned their freedom by fighting with local militias and fought valiantly like the celebrated Nero Hawley of Trumbull who was enlisted from 1777 to 1782. Hawley was freed for his service in the war and later received a veteran's pension.

Crispus Atticus (or Crispus Attucks) was a fugitive slave in Massachusetts who became one of the first "martyrs of the American Revolution." Hewas killed alongside four other colonists when British soldiers fired on a group of protestors on March 5, 1770, in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Many eyewitnesses credited Atticus with a central role in the skirmish, encouraging those who faltered to remain strong.

Image: Death of Crispus Attucks. While leading an attack against the British troops in Boston, Joseph Wilson, The Black Phalanx: a History of the Negro Soldier of the United States in the Wars of 1775-1812, 1861-1865 (1888). Courtesy The Connecticut Historical Society Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.