to
determine exactly what Washington's attitude was. Two days after Hamilton
wrote Jay about raising colored troops in South Carolina, the elder
Laurens wrote Washington: "Had we arms for three thousand such black men
as I could select in Carolina, I should have no doubt of success in
driving the British out of Georgia, and subduing East Florida before the
end of July." To this Washington answered: "The policy of our arming
slaves is in my opinion a moot point, unless the enemy set the example.
For, should we begin to form Battalions of them, I have not the smallest
doubt, if the war is to be prosecuted, of their following us in it, and
justifying the measure upon our own ground. The contest then must be who
can arm fastest, and where are our arms? Besides I am not clear that a
discrimination will not render slavery more irksome to those who remain
in it. Most of the good and evil things in this life are judged by
comparison; and I fear a comparison in this case will be productive of
much discontent in those, who are held in servitude. But, as this is a
subject that has never employed much of my thoughts, these are no more
than the first crude Ideas that have struck me upon ye occasion."[50]

What then resulted from the agitation and discussion? The reader naturally
wants to know how many Negroes were actually engaged in the Continental
Army. Here we find ourselves at sea. We have any amount of evidence that
the number of Negroes engaged became considerable, but exact figures are
for several reasons lacking. In the first place, free Negroes rarely
served in separate battalions. They marched side by side with the white
soldier, and in most cases, according to the War Department, even after
making an extended research as to the names, organizations, and numbers,
the results would be that little can be obtained from the records to show
exactly what soldiers were white and what were colored.[51] Moreover the
first official efforts to keep the Negroes out of the army must not
be regarded as having stopped such enlistments. As there was not any
formal system of recruiting, black men continued to enlist "under various
laws and sometimes under no law, and in defiance of law." The records of
every one of the original thirteen States show that each had colored
troops. A Hessian officer observed in 1777 that "the Negro can take the
field instead of his master; and, therefore, no regiment is to be seen
in which there are not negroe