It's great that you are shining a light on this individual and the difference that he and his height trips made during the War of 1812, but I think it's important to contextualize what "free troop" actually meant. Jackson needed the slaves in the region to achieve victory, not only by fighting but also on building and preparing. He made them an offer flight with him and if victorious they would be free. The war ended and Jackson broke his promise. Jackson said he couldn't "take another man's property and set it free." "Go home and mind their masters," he said, when asked what the future held for his enslaved recruits.
After the victory and despite the betrayal, Joseph Savary marched his men anyway. Former Cuban and Haitian slaves turned republican internationalists filed through the streets of New Orleans, taking pride in having driven the British out. When the parade was over, Savary sailed south to put his army at the service of Bolívar and Mexican insurgents, helping to briefly establish a piratical republican free zone in the Bahia de Gálvez, later known as Galveston Bay.
Thanks for sharing this history. I will definitely dig into this narrative. I find it fascinating that they wound up in Galveston. It would be here that enslaved people in Texas, the last state of the Confederacy, would learn the news of emancipation on June 19, 1865. Now known as Juneteenth. History never gets old. https://jamesedwardmills.substack.com/p/juneteenth
Interesting. What is the source for Savary also serving in the Mexican Revolution against Spain?
I hope this helps...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_D%27Aquin%27s_Battalion_of_Free_Men_of_Color
It's great that you are shining a light on this individual and the difference that he and his height trips made during the War of 1812, but I think it's important to contextualize what "free troop" actually meant. Jackson needed the slaves in the region to achieve victory, not only by fighting but also on building and preparing. He made them an offer flight with him and if victorious they would be free. The war ended and Jackson broke his promise. Jackson said he couldn't "take another man's property and set it free." "Go home and mind their masters," he said, when asked what the future held for his enslaved recruits.
After the victory and despite the betrayal, Joseph Savary marched his men anyway. Former Cuban and Haitian slaves turned republican internationalists filed through the streets of New Orleans, taking pride in having driven the British out. When the parade was over, Savary sailed south to put his army at the service of Bolívar and Mexican insurgents, helping to briefly establish a piratical republican free zone in the Bahia de Gálvez, later known as Galveston Bay.
Thanks for sharing this history. I will definitely dig into this narrative. I find it fascinating that they wound up in Galveston. It would be here that enslaved people in Texas, the last state of the Confederacy, would learn the news of emancipation on June 19, 1865. Now known as Juneteenth. History never gets old. https://jamesedwardmills.substack.com/p/juneteenth