Antigua

The last Black spy of the American Revolution who contributed to the war by gathering intelligence as an enslaved black servant is Antigua. In 1783, his activities were honored by the South Carolina assembly in 1783.

Antigua “was employed for the purposes of procuring information of the enemy’s movements and designs,” by the former governor of South Carolina, John Rutledge. The legislature further testified that “Antigua always executed the commissions with which he was entrusted with diligence and fidelity, and obtained very considerable and important information from within the enemy’s lines, frequently at the risk of his life.” As for Saul Matthews of Virginia, Luther P. Jackson, historian of the black soldier in Revolutionary Virginia, wrote: "In 1781 during the campaign of the British in the vicinity of Portsmouth, Saul, at the risk of his life, was sent into the British garrison. . . . He brought back military secrets of such value to Colonel Parker that on the same night, serving as a guide, he led a party of Americans to the garrison. For his services as a spy and a soldier, such distinguished Army officers as Baron von Steuben, Lafayette, Peter Muhlenburg, and Gen. Nathanael Greene praised him to the highest."

Unlike other Black spies who served in the American Revolution war, Antigua was rewarded well for a black slave at the time. After the war ended, Antiqua was given his freedom, but the legislature went even further and granted freedom to his wife, Hagar, and their child.

Name: Antigua

Born: Unknown

Died: Unknown

Contributions in the American Revolution: Spied on the British, obtained very considerable and important information from within the British’s lines.