This Day in History: 1759-03-07

Agrippa Hull a free African-American patriot is born. An important patriot of the Revolutionary War, Hull’s relative obscurity in history is an illustration of the erasure of Black accomplishment in popular narratives. Hull was assigned by George Washington to served as an orderly to Tadeusz Kościuszko, a Polish military officer, engineer and nobleman, for five years during the American Revolutionary War. He served for a total of six years and two months. After the war, he received a veteran’s pension. It was signed by George Washington, and he treasured it for the rest of his life. Born free in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1759 in the middle of the Seven Years’ War, Hull became the most significant black landowner in Stockbridge, where he lived after the Revolutionary War. He lived to the age of eighty-nine. Learn more.