62
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 44:
Line 44: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
no edit summary
The United States are under peculiar obligations to become a holy
The United States are under peculiar obligations to become a holy
people unto the Lord our God."
people unto the Lord our God."
Source: http://www.doublegv.com/ggv/battles/sutphin.html
'''Samuel Sutphin Pension Applications/Papers'''
Samuel Sutphin, as his application shows, was a black slave during the war. His application was repeatedly denied for lack of detail of time of service and for having no documentation. Important area men pressed for his pension, while other (white) men made simpler, less detailed applications and were approved, at least one of which Sutphin testified for. There was apparently prejudice because he was black, and also because he had been a slave, and served as a substitute. As a slave, he was not able to volunteer or enlist in the militia, and they may have thought that only those who served voluntarily should receive a pension. He was illiterate and did not know what name he had been enrolled under~ the application shows he was called Sutphin only well after the Revolution. He was not found on the Continental records by the War Department, and I am not sure which Samuel he might be, if any, in the records of militia Captain Jacob Ten Eyck, which records I also have. He was helped in his quest by Doctor Lewis Condict, who tried to help the NJ veterans of the Revolution get pensions.
The applications transcribed here are interesting for several other reasons. Samuel Sutphin was both black and culturally Dutch~ he says he did not speak much English at the time and knew his Dutch officers but not the English ones. The Jersey Dutch retained their own language well into the 1800's, although many also spoke English. Names are often various due to the switching between English and Dutch~ pronunciations seem to be different, plus many names translate~ Johan to John, Dyrck to Richard (Dick), Jacobus to Jacob, Coon Rod to Conrad. The same man might write his name several ways, both due to the less standardized spelling of the time, less familiarity with the rules of spelling, and what language he was thinking in. This could also lead to his name having been lost by the War Department.
He also points out something else important. Pension applications were not written by the applicant. They were recorded by a court clerk from testimony given in open court. The clerk might make errors in taking the testimony down on paper. Some may have listened to the applicant, then written it down afterwards. Transcribing verbal testimony is not easy~ in the late 1800's, the reporters at the Reno inquiry, during the army's inquiry into Custer's defeat, had wide variations from the official recording~ which is more accurate? Pension applications are never considered primary documentation due to the years gone by between the action and the account, with subsequent errors in memory, and also to the very advanced years of the deponents, who might have suffered some loss of mental agility. The fact that they were written from a verbal account is another reason.
A sad case of an old veteran probably denied a pension due to his race....The entire set of papers in the federal record is included here; if not transcribed, then a short description is given. Spelling and grammar uncorrected, pages separated by a plain rule, my notations and comments in brackets in bold: