On this day 250 years ago, Robert Champlin of Newport, Rhode Island purchased a 5ft 4 ¾in tall “negro” boy of about 16 years of age who had been enslaved in Africa, most likely Ghana, and who would eventually go by the name “York Champlin.” On March 15, 1778 York Champlin would enlist in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment under a recently passed Rhode Island law that promised freedom to slaves who enlisted. York Champlin would serve in the Continental Army until he was honorably discharged in 1783 as a free man.

Source: https://newporthistory.org/york-and-sharper-champlin/

Also on this day 250 years ago from Mount Vernon, George Washington wrote his friend Bryan Fairfax

that an Innate Spirit of freedom first told me, that the Measures which Administration hath for sometime been, and now are, most violently pursuing, are repugnant to every principle of natural justice; whilst much abler heads than my own, hath fully convinced me that it is not only repugnant to natural Right, but Subversive of the Laws & Constitution of Great Britain itself; . . . Satisfied then that the Acts of a British Parliament are no longer Govern’d by the Principles of justice—that it is trampling upon the Valuable Rights of American’s, confirmd to them by Charter, & the Consitution they themselves boast of; & convinc’d beyond the smallest doubt, that these Measures are the result of deliberation . . . . I could wish, I own, that the dispute had been left to Posterity to determine, but the Crisis is arrivd when we must assert our Rights, or Submit to every Imposition that can be heap’d upon us; till custom and use, will make us as tame, & abject Slaves, as the Blacks we Rule over with such arbitrary Sway.

Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2224%20August%201774%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=4&sr=