While it is almost impossible for us to imagine, at the time of the Revolutionary War, most colonists, including George Washington, did not think of slavery as right or wrong. It was a way of life; it was just the way things were. Washington knew that many people in both the North and the South depended on slaves to work in the factories and fields. George Washington, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, would make a declaration that neither slave nor free Blacks, would be allowed to fight in the Continental Army. If we could time travel back to 1776, to the Revolutionary War era, what would a conversation be like between George Washington and the colonists about slaves and Blacks in general serving in the War? Weren't there abolitionists? And what about free Blacks?

Presenter Noah Lewis has been reenacting free Black Continental Soldier Ned Hector since 1996, and he has researched the contributions of Black people to our nation's freedom. Through his presentations, he helps all of us to appreciate the benefits that we still enjoy today thanks to the service many people of African descent in the Revolutionary War.