Institute aims to identify graves of black veterans

By Jake Palmateer

A local research institute specializing in the study of black Civil War soldiers is expanding its efforts to include Revolutionary War veterans.

So far, the initiative has led to a greater understanding of the life of Cato Freedom, a freed black man who served in a Connecticut regiment, and whose grave was discovered in the town of Burlington, said Harry Bradshaw Matthews, associate dean of U.S. pluralism programs at Hartwick College. Bradshaw is the founder of the U.S. Colored Troops Institute for Local History and Family Research, or USCTI.

The USCTI has launched the Cato Freedom Project to identify the burial sites of black Revolutionary War soldiers, learn more about them and, if possible, find the living descendents of the soldiers, Matthews said Thursday.

"Identifying such burial grounds and tombstones of the patriots can be viewed as lasting memorials," Matthews said. "The sites can be used as common-ground reference points for the discussion of race relations in America."

The project involves cross-referencing information found on tombstones with other sources.

Matthews and Hartwick students Khadian Thomas and Brittanie Kemp researched contradictions between the soldier’s tombstone and details in his pension file. Thomas and Kemp were participants in Hartwick’s Harriet Tubman Mentoring Project.

Freedom’s tombstone bears the name "Cato Freeman" and the wrong date of death.

Matthews said it appears the tombstone was installed years after Freedom’s death in 1830, and that accounts for the inaccurate information. "Cato Freedom" is the name listed on muster rolls and pension records.

The research also revealed Freedom enlisted in the Connecticut regiment in 1778 and remained in the army until the 1783. By 1818, he had moved from Connecticut to Burlington, where he lived on a 33-acre homestead with his wife, Parmelia, and daughters Charlotte and Aurubia, according to Matthews.

Parmelia and Charlotte are also buried in Butternut Valley Cemetery.

It appears Freedom may have moved to Burlington in connection with a white man from the same regiment, Matthews said.

Matthews said that unlike the Civil War, where the Union army was segregated, blacks and whites, for the most part, fought side by side for the Continental Army.

"They may have come here together," Matthews said.

One of the goals of the project is to link up living descendents with the soldiers.

"We’ve done that very well with the Civil War," Matthews said.

But tracing Revolutionary War soldiers is more problematic.

"There are just fewer records that exist," Matthews said. "Many of the records got lost or destroyed."

There were about 5,000 blacks that fought for the American cause, Matthews said.

Many only had first names or were known by monickers such as "Negro Tom," he added.

"For most of the men, no tombstones mark their burial sites," Matthews said. "Even for those who survived the war, few records remain that personalize their respective stories. For the fortunate, however, the Congressional Act of 1818 made it possible for patriots in dire need to seek governmental assistance through pension applications. These Revolutionary War pension records provide important information about a very limited number of black patriots, which can be embellished upon by modern-day researchers."

In the case of Freedom, there is hope that his descendants can be found, he said.

"We’ve traced the family through the 1850s," Matthews said.

1850 is an important benchmark in this type of research because that was the first federal census in which all members of a household were identified by name, Matthews said.

Previously, only the head of the household was identified, and the other members were simply listed by gender, he added.

The USCTI will record the progress of the Cato Freedom Project at www.hartwick.edu/x27348.xml.

"I’m very confident that we will find more black Revolutionary War soldiers in central New York," Matthews said.

Native American and white soldiers are also included in the research, he said.