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Home arrow Black History arrow Stories arrow Untangling the Prince Whipple Legend
Untangling the Prince Whipple Legend Print E-mail
Written by J. Dennis Robinson   

Black soldier in the American Revolution
NH BLACK HISTORY

Prince Whipple was among 180 New Hampshire blacks who fought in the Revolutionary War. But was he at Valley Forge with George Washington? Historians now think not. So then why is the Internet filled with stories saying that he was? Well, that little rumor is partly out fault. Here’s how it all got started.and why we're glad it did.

 

 

MORE NH Black History

Author Robinson busted for spreading Internet rumors / SeacoastNH.comI confess. I did not start the rumors about Prince Whipple, but I certainly spread them far and wide. According to legend, an enslaved man from Portsmouth, New Hampshire was with Gen. George Washington at Valley Forge. I got the story ten years ago from historian Valerie Cunningham, who discovered it in the writings of historian William C. Nell. Nell heard about Prince Whipple while writing his breakthrough book Colored Patriots of the American Revolution that was published in 1855. This amazing volume chronicles the lives of black Revolutionaries who fought and died in the war that freed Americans from the shackles of British tyranny – white Americans, at least. Enslaved black veterans remained slaves.

Prince Whipple did accompany William Whipple of Portsmouth during the Revolution. William was one of three New Hampshire men to sign the Declaration of Independence. As a founding father, he has been elevated to a position of honor in American history. The Whipple family purchased Prince at auction when he was a child. Nell suggests that the boy was descended from royalty, but there is no way to verify that Prince was really a "prince" from Amabou, Africa. Prince was a name commonly given to slaves who were stripped of their African or Caribbean identity and assigned the owner’s surname. Classical names like Pompey, Caesar, Venus and Prince may have been a means of further segregating blacks in the household from their white "family" members.

Nell places William and Prince Whipple with Washington in the famous camp at Valley Forge. As everyone knows, Washington crossed the icy Delaware River secretly at night and defeated the British at Trenton in a turning point moment in the Revolution. As everyone also knows, there is a dramatic painting of that event. It has been hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than a century. Washington stands upright and unflinching in the boat, an American flag flying, as a dozen oarsmen battle the current and floating blocks of ice. In the gigantic 1851 painting by Emmanuel Leutze, the man rowing by Washington’s knee is black. Possibly, WC Nell suggested, the man is Prince Whipple of Portsmouth, NH.

William C Nell started the story in 1855I never actually said Prince was in the painting. I simply suggested in a 1997 essay that the man might be Prince. Although the melodramatic painting is by no means a factual depiction of the event, German artist Emmanuel Leutze was very concerned with the figures he placed in the boat. He chose to include a black figure because there were African Americans at Valley Forge. Although Leutze likely never heard the Prince Whipple story, there have been art critics and historians since who made the connection. Other slave names from other states have been suggested, but Prince Whipple has been the most popular. I simply jumped on the bandwagon back in ’97 and began waving the New Hampshire flag.

The article ran in a local newspaper an I posted the story on the Internet among hundreds of other essays. A few months later I got an email from historian Blaine Whipple who explained that, according to his exhaustive research, William Whipple was 130 miles away in Baltimore while Washington and 6,000 ragged, starving troops crossed the Delaware. I posted Blaine’s letter on my web site with a promise to correct my story. I didn’t get right to it. Life intervened. I finally fixed the details yesterday – about nine years later.

Continue with PRINCE WHIPPLE LEGEND


 

Calendar
Sea Dogs: Celebrating 15 Years
May 13, 2008
PORTLAND -- Charlie Eshbach, President/General Manager, Portland Sea Dogs, will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Sea Dogs with the publication of a new history of the team, “The Portland Sea Dogs: Images of Baseball.” FREE

LIVESTRONG Day
May 13, 2008
EXETER -- Wear yellow. Honor and support people affected by cancer in our community. Enjoy a new exhibition of art by cancer survivors. Learn about the Lance Armstrong Foundation's programs to unite people to fight cancer, and meet a member of the LAF s...

Be a Herbal Apprentice Course
May 14, 2008
CANTERBURY -- Fee: $175, members $160 Drive away the winter blues by delving into herbology. This course provides hands on experiences, making tinctures, soaps and herbal salts, for example, to connect you with the early spring. We will also concentrat...

American Independence Museum's Opening Day
May 14, 2008
The American Independence Museum opens for the season in Historic Exeter, New Hampshire. Museum hours are 10am to 4pm, with the last tours at 3:30pm.

Veggie Teens and Raw Food
May 14, 2008
EXETER -- Raise Your Vibe Wednesdays at Blue Moon. Blue Moon Natural Foods, 8 Clifford Street, Exeter, sees this spring as an opportunity to explore what each of us can do to make healthful choices for people and the planet. Some of these solutions com...

Writer Louise Erdrich
May 14, 2008
PORTSMOUTH -- One of the most gifted, prolific and challenging of contemporary Native American novelists, Award-winning novelist Louise Erdrich will be a part of our Writers on a New England Stage series on May 14. Her new original novel The Plague of D...

Lighthouse Buffet Dinner
May 16, 2008
The main event this evening will be the American Lighthouse Foundation's first “Lighthouse Trivia Challenge.” This will be a Jeopardy-style competition, complete with buzzers and sound effects. The winners of the early games will compete in a final roun...

Meteors, Meteorites and Comets
May 16, 2008
CONCORD -- Planetarium Educator Bob Veilleux will explain why you can collect meteorites - but not meteors or comets. Learn about these fascinating solar system interlopers, where they come from, how you can see them, and how they are related. See and...

Mother Courage
May 16 - 17, 2008
Our mainstage season wraps up in May with the Senior Youth Repertory Company production of Bertolt Brecht’s epic masterpiece Mother Courage and Her Children. Through Brecht’s stark vision, the play relentlessly questions the distinctions between war, bu...

Books & Blooms Sale
May 17, 2008
BRENTWOOD -- Our Annual Books & Blooms Sale is scheduled for Saturday, May 17th from 9 - 11:30 am! Come to the Mary Bartlett Library, 22 Dalton Road in Brentwood, to purchase lots of books for little money - and purchase great plants at great prices. Pl...

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