On this day in 2019, the Michigan Society of the Sons of the American Revolution honored Private James Robinson, a Black soldier in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, with a bronze marker for his valor.
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Today in 2019, it was announced that an unsung hero of two early American Wars was finally getting some posthumous recognition. Private James Robinson was born enslaved in Maryland, and was one of about five thousand black soldiers in the Revolutionary War, serving in George Washington’s army. He fought at many storied battles, including Brandywine, and at Yorktown, where his bravery led General Marquis de Lafayette to decorate Robinson for his valor. He also would volunteer to fight in the War of 1812, where after the Battle of New Orleans, he would be led to Ohio and live out his days in freedom as an abolitionist preacher, spending the last of his astonishing 115 years in Detroit before being interred with a plain marker at Elmwood Cemetery. But today in 2019, the Michigan Society of the Sons of the American Revolution announced this Black, early American Hero would get a bronze marker to honor his service.