A negative view of Andrew
Jackson's regard for Creole and black troops emerges from The
Narrative of James Roberts, written by a man wo
served in jacksons army at New Orleans. Roberts was a slave
who had been returned to slavery after serving in the Revolutionary
War.
General jackson, in order
to prepare to meet Packenham, the British General, in the
contest at New Orleans, came into our section of the coutry...to
enlist five hundred negros. Jackson came into the field and
then addressed us thus:
"Had you not as soon go into
the battle and fight, as to stay here in the cotton field,
dying and never die? If you will go, and the battle is fought
and the victory gained on Israel's side, you shall be free."
But after the battle was won
and "sixty or seventy or more of the colored men were
killed...[who] were, without doubt, as Jackson himself acknowledged,
the instrumental cause of victory," Jackson told the
men to "go home to your masters."
Roberts challenged
Jackson about his promise to free them, and Jackson answered:
"If I were to hire you my horse, could you sell it without
my leave? You are another man's property, and I have not money
sufficient to buy all of you, and set you free."
Infuriated at the betrayal,
Roberts cocked his gun but discovered Jackson had had the
guns of the African Americans unloaded. "had my gun been
loaded," Roberts recalled, "doubtless Jackson would
have been a dead man in a moment....Jackson asked me if contended
for freedom. I sais I did. He said, 'I think you are very
presumptuous.' I told him, the time had come for us to claim
our rights.
He said, 'You are a day too late.' Some of the
whites standing around said, 'He ought to be shot.' Now, just
think of that! Two days before, I had, with my fellow soldiers,
saved their city from fire and massacre...now, 'he ought to
be shot!' simply for contending for my freedom, which, both
my master and Jackson had solemnly before high heaven promised,
before I left home."
