In 1775 when the Revolutionary War erupted, Fairfield County had almost 1,200 slaves. Many of them ran away to British lines in New York City and western Long Island in the hope of gaining freedom. Others, however, did not run away, and many of the slaves in New England joined the fight for freedom from England's colonial government. The African Americans who enlisted to fight in the Revolutionary War received payment for their service, as this 1784 pay voucher for Jeff Liberty demonstrates.

Image: Pay Voucher to Jeff Liberty , 1784. Courtesy The Connecticut Historical Society Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.