scholars now believe that altogether some five thousand blacks served in the Continental army in the course of the war. As about 100,000 men are believed to have been in the army during this conflict, blacks would have comprised 5 percent of the Continentals who served. As most blacks enlisted in 1778 or later, and as they joined for the duration and served longer than many white soldiers, it is possible that during the final crucial years of the war as many as one Continental army soldier in ten was an African American.40
