Black sharpshooter became 1775 war hero (USA 250)

By Jason Williams
Oregon250.com
Website dedicated to celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.

Peter Salem, who was born a slave, quickly became a Revolutionary War hero. At twenty-five, his owner sold him to Lawson Buckminster, a major in the Continental Army, who loaned the slave to fight in the war for independence.

At the Battle of Bunker Hill, Salem was identified by witnesses as the soldier who fired the chest shot that killed British Major John Pitcairn. Pitcairn’s death boosted the colonists’ morale, and Salem’s participation was memorialized in John Trumbull’s 1786 painting, The Battle of Bunker’s Hill. After the battle, General George Washington said owners could no longer order their salves to fight, so Buckminster freed Salem to continue fighting as a Black Minuteman alongside Titus Coburn, Salem Poor, and Seymore Burr. He re-enlisted with the Continental Army and fought at the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the New York Campaign, the Battles of Harlem Heights and Trenton. After re-enlisting for three more years, Salem fought in the Battles of Saratoga, Monmouth, and Stony Point.

When the war ended, he moved to Salem, married Katy Bension in September 1783, and built a cabin near  Leicester, Massachusetts. He worked as a cane weaver, gardened, and did furniture repair.   The townspeople in 1887 erected a monument honoring his Revolutionary War service. His cabin has been designated a historical monument since 1909. Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., has a statue of Peter Salem installed for America’s 250th anniversary of independence.