Sean Osborne plays “Primus Hall” at First Flag

Who is Primus Hall? You may have heard of his father, Prince Hall. Primus was a Revolutionary soldier. Here is his tale as told by Sean Osborne:

Primus Hall - from apprenticed enslaved child to Revolutionary War pensioner

Last night was so cold that it reminded me of when I was serving with General Washington in December of 1776. We were waiting to cross the Delaware River to take part in his Christmas night surprise attack against the Hessian forces in New Jersey. We won that battle near Trenton, but it sure was COLD.

You have to forgive me, my wife often says, Primus, Primus Hall, do you always have to talk about your time with General George Washington during the Revolutionary War? Invariably, my response is Yes, Anna, yes I do.

I first met General Washington in 1776, during the Siege of Boston. This was the General’s first campaign as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.

In January 1776, when I was about 19 years old, I enlisted into the Continental Army. This was about the same time that General Henry Knox returned to Cambridge with fifty-nine cannons from Fort Ticonderoga.

My first three months in the military were spent near here on Winter Hill. When I wasn’t guarding the Winter Hill Fort, I was getting to know the other soldiers of the 5th Massachusetts Regiment.

Some of those gentlemen had fought on April 19, 1775 in the first battle of the war and others had fought at Bunker Hill. They told me that General Washington was surprised to see so many armed Black men when he arrived in Cambridge in July of 1775. After learning of the heroism of Black patriots like Private Prince Estabrook who was wounded on the Lexington Green and still fought at Bunker Hill and of Private Peter Salem who mortally wounded British Major John Pitcairn during the Battle of Bunker Hill, General Washington worried less about the complexion of the soldiers who served under him. In fact, Peter Salem and I took part in the New York Campaign and served at the Battle of Trenton with General Washington.

I heard that over the course of war, more than 2,000 Black men from Massachusetts fought the King of England’s army. That said, I am likely the only soldier, Black, White or Indigenous to have served with General Washington in Boston, New York, Princeton and Yorktown.

You’d think that my military service to the cause of liberty and to our country would have led to quick approval of my veteran pension application. But no. First I wasn’t eligible because I owned too much property in and around Beacon Hill. Truth be told, I once had so much money that I supported Ezra Trask, my former master to whom I was apprenticed. Then as I got older and less affluent, the Commissioner of Pensions questioned my military service and denied my applications, time and time again. The Commissioner even claimed that I was enslaved during my service and that enslaved soldiers were not eligible for pensions. But I was not enslaved. Yes, my parents, Prince and Delia Hall, were enslaved at the time of my birth. But William Hall, their enslaver, soon after my birth chose to bound me out as a shoemaker’s apprentice to Ezra Trask.

A few of my friends suggested that the Commissioner’s decision to deny my pension request may have been colored by my work with my father Prince Hall to educate Boston’s Black children and my work with the Prince Hall Freemasons to abolish slavery across the country.

Only heaven knows what that Commissioner was thinking. I took my appeal of the Commissioner’s denial to Congress. The Congressional Committee on Revolutionary Pensions considered my testimony and the testimony of my fellow veterans and agreed that I was a member of the military family of General Washington. They awarded me a pension of $60 a year.

You know, $5 a month doesn’t go as far as it used to.So later today, or perhaps tomorrow, when you see this old pensioner, offer me a warm drink and in exchange I’ll tell you some more stories about me and General Washington.

Til then take care and keep warm.