Unlike the Continental Army, the Navy recruited both free and enslaved blacks from the very start of the Revolutionary War ... famous black seamen was James Forten, who enlisted on the privateer ...

He was a war hero and businessman ... "This is the original portrait done in 1818 of James Forten Sr.," Marshall said. Forten was born in 1766, a free man of African American heritage in Philadelphia.

Unlike the Continental Army, the Navy recruited both free and enslaved blacks from the very start of the Revolutionary War ... famous black seamen was James Forten, who enlisted on the privateer ...