The Forgotten Fifth by Gary Nash

A Book Review by Marianne Whitacre

March 2009

Gary Nash’s “goal in writing history has not been to destabilize history but rather to bring attention to those forgotten Americans who have inarguably been part of constructing our society and our nation.” (Nash, Preface) One such group, African Americans, have just recently been recognized as valuable contributors to history. In his book, The Forgotten Fifth, Nash has included extended versions of lectures that he gave at the Du Bois Institute on November 8-10, 2004. I would rather he had named it, The Founding Fathers’ Folly, and will use his discussion to support this change of title.

Nash addresses the African American cause during the Revolutionary War period through the lens of the premise cited in the Declaration of Independence—“. . . all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This notion is why the American Revolution was fought and why the prevailing sentiment of the time was for the abolition of slavery. This sentiment is best described through a quote by Bernard Bailyn included the author—“The identification between the cause of the colonies and the cause of the Negroes bound in chattel slavery—an identification built into the very language of politics—became inescapable.” (Nash, 17) I cannot help but wonder that had our Founding Fathers “walked the talk” how different our nation’s history and present would be.

Nash’s indicates in his title that one fifth of the country’s population during the Revolutionary period were African American. However, their stories have all but been ignored in the telling of history. Did you know that Prince Whipple is one of the “colored” patriots who is holding the stroke oar in the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware? (Nash, 14) Or have you heard about Agrippa Hull who served for six years in the struggle for American independence? (Nash, 9) Or there is Peter Salem, who fired the shot that killed Major John Pitcairn at the battle of Bunker Hill, having signed up with his master’s pledge to grant his freedom. (Nash, 10)

Until reading this book, I did not realize the extent to which African Americans fought before, during and after the Revolution—for and against the American cause—with their main aim and desire being to “secure what was prized above all else: freedom.” (Nash, 7) Nash cites Quarles in The Negro in the American Revolution as saying that “The Negroes role in the Revolution can best be understood by realizing that his major loyalty was not to a place nor to a people but to a principle.” (Nash, 6)

The Black American Revolution and the impact this fight for freedom had on the overall success of the entire revolutionary process is the author’s thesis in writing The Forgotten Fifth. He shares vignettes of black and white revolutionary leaders and cites their reasons for supporting or opposing the issues surrounding slavery versus freedom for all men.

I found his account of the oxymoronic opinions of our country’s Revolutionary leaders, i.e., Washington, Jefferson, John Adams and even Benjamin Franklin, to be quite illuminating yet disturbing. Even the statement, “we hold these truths to be self-evident,” finds me wary and apprehensive given their actions during and after the war. When Nash cites that when their slaves, Hercules and Ona Judge, chose running away to be free over servitude to the First Family, George and Martha Washington sent agents to seize and shackle them, albeit without success; when he indicates that Jefferson “could not imagine white and black people living together in freedom . . . though for most of his life he lived in Monticello surrounded by black people;” (Nash, 111) when he states that John Adams, both as president and vice president, would never risk any of his capital to oppose slavery; when he relays that Benjamin Franklin, three weeks before his death, wrote a “satiric attack on slavery” (Nash, 93) which he, however, conveniently published anonymously, I am appalled. What would the course of events have been had these leaders of our American Revolution taken a stand and supported the right of all Americans to be free?

In his book, The Forgotten Fifth, Gary Nash used both written and pictorial primary source documents. I have used some of these references in the above review analysis. His sources are included for the historian or researcher but were important and reflective of his discussion. Quotes both pro and con regarding the issue of slavery versus abolition were a major factor in his argument that our founding fathers missed the boat when it came to abolishing slavery during the Revolutionary War period. In addition, secondary references from various other historical writers were also included in his manuscript. These references added to the discussion rather than detracted.

The book was written and discussed answers to the following three topics/questions posed by the author:

· The Black Americans’ Revolution

· Could Slavery Have Been Abolished?

· Race and Citizenship in the Early Republic

Within each chapter or topic discussion, events and biographical accounts were given in chronological order with some overlapping due to topic analysis. Since I have addressed the first two topics previously, I will give examples from “Race and Citizenship in the Early Republic” to support this position.

James Forten, one of Philadelphia’s most successful black businessmen, published five letters to the public conveying the views of black northerners concerning citizenship. He first and foremost thought of himself as an American and, due to prejudices he experienced later, as an African American. (Nash, 125-126) His letters supported the “revolutionary generation’s rhetoric of natural rights” that “would usher in a biracial democracy in Pennsylvania and create a nation where colorblind national identify flowed from an allegiance to the nation and state.” (Nash, 128) Therefore, also supporting my notion wherein had we as a nation embraced abolition and freedom for all American citizens during this time, what a different history our nation would have shared today. (I received an email last week entitled, “The Second American Revolution,” where a man dressed as a patriot was spouting about freedom and equality, all the time indicating these values were mainly for good, middle class white Americans. It made me sick. I deleted it and questioned the intentions of the good friend that had sent it.)

Then there was Charles Caldwell, who had studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania under Benjamin Rush, Philadelphia’s leading white supporter of African American progress. Following Rush’s death, Caldwell wrote two essays asserting “the inherent inferiority of Africans and their descendants.” (Nash, 138) Thus began the growing fear among white northerners about the effects of emancipation on racial intermixture, and that such intermingling would, as Winthrop Jordan argued, sadly prove that civilized man had turned “beast in the forest.” (Nash, 139) No national leader voiced any concern for this way of thinking, remaining mute and letting the national tide slip away from theories of unity in race and citizenship.

Much of the book and its sources, of both people and events, took place in Boston. Boston was where William C. Nell was the first historian to chronicle black revolutionary service in the 1850s with his pamphlets, The Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812 and Colored Patriots of the American Revolution. Nell also identified Prince Whipple as the man handling the stroke oar in the painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware. (Nash, 2)

In 1764 Boston’s James Otis was cited as asserting that “colonists are by the law of nature free born, as indeed all men are, white and black . . . Does it follow that ‘tis right to enslave a man because he is black? Will short curled hair . . . instead of Christian hair, as ‘tis called by those whose hearts are as hard as the nether millstone, help the argument? Can any logical inference in favour of slavery be drawn from a flat nose, a long or a short face?” (Nash, 16) This speech was made as defense of American colonists against invasion of their rights by the British.

Boston in the early days of the Revolution was a place of rhetoric for freedom but little action ensued in freeing black Americans until the British Lord Dunmore’s proclamation of 1775 granted freedom to slaves fleeing their masters. The slaves determined to gain their freedom also indicated that they would fight for him provided he would “arm them and engage to liberate them.” Thus the British Ethiopian Regiment was formed. (Nash, 28) Many died, not in battle, but from smallpox and starvation.

After the fighting of the war, black founding fathers tried to accomplish their own revolutionary agenda—“to recast the social system.” (Nash, 50) In Boston there were many black leaders who now through the organization of free black communities fought for the “establishment of schools, churches, and mutual aid associations, and supporting themselves.” (Nash, 94) Thomas Paul and Nero Prince were two Bostonians who emerged as black founding fathers.

This book could be used as a resource in the classroom. The many events and mini-biographies of the African Americans highlighted in the book could be included in any discussion covering the American Revolutionary period. Students will be just as amazed as I that this part of history has not been adequately conveyed in our history books. The ramifications of what could have taken place versus what did take place is excellent fodder for group discussions and individual analysis essay writing.