[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 16475-16476]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       NATIONAL LIBERTY MEMORIAL

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I wish to speak today about an effort long 
championed by my predecessors in the Senate, Senators Dodd and 
Lieberman, and to express my commitment to carry on their work. That 
important project, the National Liberty Memorial, will commemorate the 
patriotism of African American soldiers during the American Revolution.
  From the very first days of the American Revolution, African 
Americans took part in the effort to establish a new nation and secure 
liberty's blessings. They did this despite the fact that the vast 
majority of their brothers and sisters remained slaves.
  Many of these African American patriots were from Connecticut. In 
1976, the town of Milford established a memorial to six black soldiers 
of the Revolutionary War. Nero Hawley, a slave who joined the 
Continental Army and served at Valley Forge, was later freed after the 
war. You can visit his grave today at Riverside Cemetery in Trumbull. 
Jupiter Mars lived an extraordinary life, serving in the Continental 
Army during the war. He now rests in peace in beautiful Norfolk, CT. 
Cato Meed enlisted in the Continental Army in Norwich in 1777, and 
served at Valley Forge with General Washington.
  These soldiers fought in every battle of the Revolutionary War, from 
the colonists' defeat at the Battle of Long

[[Page 16476]]

Island to our final victory at Yorktown. At every point, African 
American men served bravely and with honor. In fact, one of the first 
men to die in America's struggle for independence was Crispus Attucks, 
who was shot by British troops during the Boston massacre. This 
dedication to the war effort continued right up to the last battle when 
Salem Poor, a freed slave, earned commendation recommendations from 14 
officers for his bravery at Bunker Hill. In recounting Poor's 
performance at the battle, officers wrote there were too many heroic 
deeds to describe.
  Committed to the cause of American independence, African American 
soldiers filled every role that the war required of them, whether they 
served on local militias, worked as cooks and carpenters in camps like 
Valley Forge, or served as crewmembers on America's first Navy ships. 
Many African Americans escaped the bondage of slavery to join the 
American Navy. Still others, like James Armistead, acted as spies for 
the Revolution by providing American patriots with vital information 
needed to win the war. Regardless of their roles, they served ably and 
with distinction.
  After the war, the agreements negotiated between slaves and masters 
were largely honored and the patriots freed upon either enlistment or 
the end of the war. However, once they had put down the weapons used to 
win the Nation's independence, a few had to resort to legal means to 
enforce their claim to liberty. For one patriot--James Robinson, later 
of Detroit, MI, who also fought in the War of 1812--freedom did not 
come until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Many other African 
Americans remained trapped in bondage as the institution of slavery 
expanded in spite of lawsuits, petitions, and agitation.
  Many of these African American soldiers would go on to organize early 
abolitionist and civil rights organizations. One such man was Samuel 
Harris, a soldier, Baptist minister, and early abolitionist who said, 
``Liberty is dear to my heart. I cannot endure the thought that my 
countrymen live as slaves.'' Nevertheless, despite their valiant 
service to this country's founding, many African American soldiers were 
not treated with the dignity that their service demanded. While this 
country's founding documents stated that all men were created equal, 
the Nation still sought to hold many Americans as property.
  It is estimated that the names of at least half of these brave 
soldiers would have been lost to history had it not been for the 
efforts of Plainville, CT native Lena Santos Ferguson. Five years ago, 
the Daughters of the American Revolution fulfilled a promise made to 
her in 1984 to identify as many African American Revolutionary War 
soldiers and patriots as possible. ``Forgotten Patriots,'' contains the 
names of over 5,000, as well as the communities where they once 
resided. Nearly 20 Connecticut towns have approved resolutions that 
honor them, and they have joined the ranks of those seeking 
construction of the National Liberty Memorial.
  At the beginning of this year President Obama signed into law 
legislation that was passed by the Congress last year that once again 
affirmed our public commitment to memorialize these brave patriots 
through a new memorial in the Monumental Core of our capital city. 
Liberty Fund D.C., a nonprofit established to lead the effort to 
construct the memorial, is currently working with architects and 
Federal agencies to make that goal a reality.
  I believe that we must do what we can to build this memorial. 
Further, I believe that a key feature of any such memorial is that it 
should be visually tied to the Washington Monument, the most prominent 
Revolutionary-era monument in the District. There should be a clear 
sightline from the memorial to the Washington Monument.
  For good reason, constructing any new memorial in the Washington, DC 
area is a rigorous process, and there are a number of prerequisites to 
be met before construction can begin. I look forward to continuing to 
work with Liberty Fund D.C. to achieve the goals of this important 
legislation, to ensure that a monument to the African American patriots 
of the Revolutionary War be constructed in a prominent location in our 
Nation's capital.

                          ____________________