Washington, George. Discharge document signed, 8 June 1783

Property of a Private Boston Collection

WASHINGTON, GEORGE

PRINTED DOCUMENT SIGNED AS COMMANDER OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY ("GO: WASHINGTON"), BEING BRISTER BAKERS MILITARY DISCHARGE

Broadsheet on paper (12 x 6 7/8 in.; 305 x 175 mm), accomplished in a clerical hand, "Head-Quarters" [Newburgh, New York], 8 June 1783, countersigned by aide-de-camp Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., and recording adjutant G. Curtiss, with the "Badge of Merit" text at bottom; browned, lower portion rebacked on verso, some early repair including an artless mend to a separated fold.

A discharge for a black Continental soldier after six years faithful service. Brister Baker enrolled in the Second Connecticut Regiment on 8 April 1777, near the end of the Regiment's organizing period. Baker's discharge is illustrated in William C. Nell's Colored Patriots of the American Revolution (Boston, 1855). A later annotation on the verso of the document notes, "The evidence that Baker was a colored man appears full on the State Record of the Conn State forces." Baker eventually joined a company of black infantry in the Connecticut Regiment, which was commanded for a time by David Humphreys. 

LITERATURE:

cf. "A Struggle from the Start," an online exhibition of the Hartford Black History Project: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/HBHP/exhibit/menu.html)