“Revolutionary Blacks provides a 14-page index, a 28-page bibliography, and 48 pages of notes that reflect the incredible research Dr. Green undertook to produce this narrative. As someone with Patriot ancestors, my family’s oral histories differ considerably from Professor Green’s, so it is refreshing to compare viewpoints of this transformational event. While both genealogists and historians recognize the roadblocks and blind alleys that the lack of definitive records creates for African Americans in researching their own family history, the same is true for many others with different heritages. Dr. Green is as much a detective as a historian assembling centuries-old clues from archival research, family interviews, and DNA evidence; and validating, reinterpreting, or expanding her great-grandfather’s family oral history. She lets the evidence stand on its own. It is also a wonderful family story where one can see the shared desires of Black and White, Loyalist and Patriot men to improve family circumstances and safety in the new United States and in loyalist Nova Scotia. Revolutionary Blacks should inspire those who seek to discover their own family stories whether their ancestors called America home for thousands of years, were transported on a colonial-era ship, came through Ellis Island on a tramp steamer, or simply walked across a porous border. It certainly underscores the importance of oral history and passing on family stories whether factual or fanciful.”—James Stacy, Journal of America’s Military Past
“Shirley Green’s Revolutionary Blacks delivers a movingly written, well-researched tale of two free Black Continental soldiers, their surprising split, and their family legacy that echoes even now. Green weaves together oral history, deep archival dives, and more to reconstruct the Frank brothers’ striving to be men in a society wiling to claim them as soldiers, but reluctant to include them as citizens. Revolutionary Blacks is more than the Frank family story: this is a great American story, as told by a gifted historian.”—Andrew M. Schocket, author of Fighting over the Founders: How We Remember the American Revolution
“This book introduces us to a great American story that we badly need to hear. Through William and Ben Frank, we gain an entirely new perspective on the Revolutionary Era—that of freeborn Black soldiers whose military service sprang from family tradition rather than resistance to slavery. With painstaking care, Green has reconstructed the brothers’ lives and traced their family lines. Weaving together evidence from archival research, oral history, and genealogical investigation, she has crafted a wonderfully satisfying narrative.”—Ruth Wallis Herndon, author of Unwelcome Americans: Living on the Margin in Early New England