Reading Town Common Flagpole (4A)

Almost every year on Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day at or near where we now stand, the town of Reading commemorates its veterans. Words are shared, names are read, “Taps” is played, service and sacrifice are remembered.

Today, on this common gathering site, we will remember the service of Reading’s African American veterans and the central role Blacks played in the colonial history of the town.

During the 19th century the service of Reading’s Black veterans was not forgotten. At Reading’s Bi-Centennial in 1844 James Flint, a prominent town historian and orator, declared that Reading’s “colored persons,...owned as slaves,....proved good and brave soldiers.”

A 19th century Reading historian used military records to document the service of Reading’s soldiers. We know that at least eleven African Americans from Reading served in the American Revolutionary War. From 1775-1783, they served in campaigns from the nearby siege of Boston to the victorious battle of Yorktown. 

Baccus was a Black private from Reading who served in the early months of the war. His company return was dated October 1775, and he was likely part of the months-long siege of Boston, helping to hold the British inside the city.

Cato Eaton enlisted for three years as a substitute for Reading resident John Brown. Cato’s service led to a bounty and his freedom.

Caesar Freeman enlisted multiple times including in Rhode Island. He received a bounty for serving as a substitute for John Geary.

Doss Freeman obtained a pension for his service from 1777 to 1779, during which he likely served alongside other Reading men at the Battle of Saratoga, New York and at the winter training encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Jonas Freeman was an eighteen-year-old farmer of “black complexion” when he went to war in December 1780. It is likely that his three years of service took him, along with other Reading men, to the last official battle of the war in Yorktown, Virginia.

(Read by Jessica Bailey, History and Social Studies teacher at Reading Memorial High School)