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Washburn
==Career==
==Career==
Peter Salem was the colored man who particularly distinguished himself in the Revolutionary war by shooting down Major Pitcairn at the battle of Bunker Hill, as he was mounting a redoubt, and shouting, "The day is ours!" this being the time when Pitcairn fell back into the arms of his son. Peter Salem served faithfully in the war for seven years in the companies of minute men under the command of Captain John Nixon and Captain Simon Edgell, of Framingham, and came out of it unharmed. He was a slave, and was owned, originally, by Captain Jeremiah Belknap, of Framingham, being sold by him to Major Lawson Buckminister of that town, he becoming a free man when he joined the army.
Peter Salem was the colored man who particularly distinguished himself in the Revolutionary war by shooting down Major Pitcairn at the battle of Bunker Hill, as he was mounting a redoubt, and shouting, "The day is ours!" this being the time when Pitcairn fell back into the arms of his son. Peter Salem served faithfully in the war for seven years in the companies of minute men under the command of Captain John Nixon and Captain Simon Edgell, of Framingham, and came out of it unharmed. He was a slave, and was owned, originally, by Captain Jeremiah Belknap, of Framingham, being sold by him to Major Lawson Buckminister of that town, he becoming a free man when he joined the army.
Emory Washburn, an early colonial governor for Massachusetts, said the following:
<blockquote>There was one other whom I have noticed elsewhere who was in that fight - Peter Salem, a black man, belonging to Colonel John Nixon's regiment. All the accounts of the battle speak of the gallant conduct of Major Pitcairn, of the British marines, on that occasion. He was shot down as he mounted the redoubt, crying out, exultingly, 'The day is ours,' and fell into the arms of his son, who tenderly bore him off the field to a boat, and thence to a house in Prince Street, Boston, where he died. That shot was undoubtedly fired by Peter; and the death of Major Pitcairn, with its accompanying circumstances, formed one of the most touching incidents of that eventful day.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=IpcvAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA59 An Oration Pronounced at Worcester (Mass.) on the Fortieth Anniversary of American Independence]</ref></blockquote>
==Legacy==
==Legacy==