December 1776
Connecticut excludes Black and Indigenous men from its militia alarm list
Connecticut
Connecticut’s December militia act expanded the alarm list to men aged sixteen through sixty outside ordinary train-band service, while excepting Black, Indigenous and mixed-race men alongside specified officeholders, ministers and Yale members. Men on the alarm list could be called or drafted for defense. Those drafted could provide an accepted substitute or pay five pounds to avoid prosecution for failing to serve.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The racial clause concerns enrollment in this compulsory militia reserve. It does not by itself prove a ban on all voluntary enlistment or Continental Army service. The cited records place the act in the session beginning December 18; the entry uses month-level precision rather than treating that session opening as a separately verified enactment day.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 5, p. 79; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Charles J. Hoadly, ed., Public Records of the State of Connecticut, vol. I (1894), pp. 89, 91–96; December session heading, militia act, alarm-list exceptions p. 92 and substitution/payment p. 94 ↗