Diverse Patriots African Americans P3

Last week I ended talking about an African American slave and Patriot, James Armistead who became America’s first double spy who joined and served with General Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette’s strategy included sending spies into the British camp to secretly report their findings back to him.

Lafayette dispatched James Armistead to the camp of Benedict Arnold to pose as an escaped slave. Arnold accepted James and allowed him to serve in the officers tent, which placed James in proximity with other British generals, including Cornwallis. Over time, the British came to trust James, thus allowing him to learn much vital information about British plans and troop movements.

Ironically, both Arnold and Lord Cornwallis trusted James so much that they used him (they thought) as a “spy” against the Americans. Armistead thus became a double-spy, moving freely between both camps. He fed accurate information to the Americans and inaccurate information to the British.

More on this next week for another American Moment.

Sourced from The American Story: The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton.