Kościuszko poland

Somewhere between three and four hundred black men served in the Continental Army during the battle of Saratoga, one of the moments credited with the turning the tide during the American Revolution. It's difficult to tell exactly how many because soldiers were not identified by race on the roster.

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And like their numbers, many of the stories of the black soldiers of the revolution are missing from history. One of the men at the battle we do know about is Agrippa Hull -- a free black man who served for nearly six years, most of them as a personal aid to Thaddeus Kosciusko , the mastermind behind the battle of Saratoga and the namesake of the twin bridges on the Northway.

Hull was the inspiration behind Kosciusko's effort to free hundreds of American slaves. An effort that ended up being thwarted by his friend -- founding father Thomas Jefferson. The attitude of the Colonial government toward African American soldiers was complicated. In December of , George Washington defied a Congressional ruling stating that "negroes, boys unable to bear arms, [or] old men unfit to endure the fatigues of the campaign" were not to be enlisted in the Continental Army.

Washington had learned that there were black men who wanted to serve. In addition, the British were offering freedom to any slave who fought for the Loyalists. So Washington allowed free black men to enlist. Congress soon approved the move, but controversy continued. Albany's own Philip Schuyler -- a major general in the Continental Army -- wrote to another general complaining of the troops he had been sent: " Yep, that guy.

Yes, that's the guy whose statue stands in front of Albany City Hall today. But this isn't Philip Schuyler's story. It's Agrippa Hull's.