African-American Participation Further Reading The Coloured Corps

The majority of African-Americans who participated on either side during the War of 1812 did so as sailors rather than soldiers. Both the British and American armies had regulations which barred blacks from service. There were some exceptions to this colour rule in the British army, usually when musicians were needed to complete a regimental band. For instance, it is believed that black musicians filled out the ranks of the mostly Gaelic-speaking Glengarry Light Infantry Regiment of Upper Canada. Another notable exception during the War of 1812 was The Coloured Corps, an Upper Canadian regiment made up of blacks from the Niagara region. Little is known about this regiment except that it fought at Queenston Heights, and served on the Niagara peninsula in 1813. The British Royal Navy did not have the racial restrictions imposed by the British army. In 1812, the Royal Navy already had a small percentage of black seamen in its ranks. In 1814, black regiments from the West Indies were employed during the ill-fated naval campaign against New Orleans. Also, throughout the conflict, the British navy recruited a number of blacks from the U.S. to fight against the Americans. Most of these men would have been slaves captured by the English as they raided plantations along the eastern seaboard of the United States. This was not done for humanitarian reasons, but rather to deprive certain regions of a critical labour force, and to incur fear that the British were inciting a general revolt against American slave-holders. These African-Americans were promised their freedom in return for joining British naval campaigns. It is known that more than two hundred such black marines participated in the battles in Bladensburg, Washington, and Baltimore. Unfortunately, the British were as bad as the white American administration at keeping promises. Many of these men were sold back into slavery in the West Indies after the war. However, the British did relocate a significant number of black Americans and their families to Canada where slavery had been abolished under British law. Nova Scotia in particular would become the new home for a large number of these people. Early on in the conflict, the United States navy petitioned for the right to recruit African-American sailors. In March of 1813, Congress finally passed an act allowing their enlistment. Many African-Americans hoped that by showing their loyalty for the country during the war, they could make gains in the their struggle for equal rights and freedoms under the American constitution. Blacks soon made up somewhere between ten and twenty percent of sailors manning the ships on the Great Lakes. Their participation in many lake battles, such as the one on Lake Erie in 1813, has been well documented. Also, many black seamen escaped the harsh conditions of the British navy, opting instead to fight with the growing number of African-Americans in the U.S. navy.