Prince Estabrook: A Wound and a Question

We know three things for certain about Prince Estabrook. He was enslaved. He was at Lexington. He was wounded.

Everything else is inference, imagination, or silence.

Why was he there? The historical record offers no answer. An enslaved person's motivations were rarely considered worth recording. Did Benjamin Estabrook, who claimed ownership of Prince, order him to muster with the militia? Did Prince volunteer, hoping military service might lead to freedom? Did he believe in the cause he was fighting for—a cause articulated in terms of liberty by men who kept him in bondage?

We don't know. We can't know.

What we know is that when the British fired, Prince Estabrook's blood mixed with that of his white neighbors on Lexington Green. He was among the first Black men wounded in the American Revolution. He served throughout the war, eventually in the Continental Army. After the war, he was freed.

His story sits at the heart of America's founding contradiction. Here is a man who fought for freedom while enslaved—who helped win liberty for a nation that would continue to deny it to millions like him for nearly another century. Did he feel the hypocrisy? Did he hope things would change? Did he fight because he had no choice?

The wound healed. The questions remain open.