PLYMOUTH FREEMAN

Inscription

PLYMOUTH FREEMAN
BLACK PATRIOT AWARDED BADGE
OF MERIT FOR 6 YEARS SERVICE
WITH THIRD CT REGIMENT IN
REVOLUTIONARY WAR. LIVED
NEAR HERE CA. 1800 TO 1829.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2021

Plymouth Freeman was a Black Revolutionary War patriot who served as a Private in the Third Connecticut Regiment from May 1777 to June 1783. For his six years of faithful service, Plymouth was awarded the Badge of Merit, believed to be America’s first military award and the precursor to the Purple Heart. Plymouth also received a pension of eight dollars per month starting in 1818 and a bounty land warrant for his service in the Revolutionary War. The federal government, and the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia provided bounty land to those who served in the Revolutionary War. The veteran or their heirs would request the bounty land, and if their request was approved, they would be given a warrant to receive land. Plymouth received a bounty land warrant with a registration date of February 1800. Plymouth lived near Nelson in Madison County, New York from circa 1800 to 1829. He died on August 25, 1829.

It is believed that Plymouth Freeman was formerly enslaved and given his freedom for his military service in the Revolutionary War. The 1885 death record of his son, Jeremiah Freeman, includes that Plymouth worked for George Washington “who set him free & gave him his name.”