Prince Greene, (1752 – July 4, 1819) was a Black violinist who lived in 18th century Rhode Island. In 1777, while he was enslaved to Richard Greene, he enlisted as a Private in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment to pursue his freedom in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. In 1781, while an active duty soldier, Greene was court-martialed for an incident that resulted in the death of Edward Allen, a white civilian. Also an active musician, in the early decades of the 1800s, he would play the fiddle for private parties in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
Early life and enslavement
Prince Greene was enslaved to Richard Greene, of Potowomut, Rhode Island. Richard was a descendant of John Greene, an original settler of Warwick, Rhode Island. Richard's grandfather, Thomas Greene, built Hopelands, a historic home, sometime in 1686. The home is now part of the campus of Rocky Hill Country Day School. Over time, Prince began to work as a laborer in the Greene family farms in Coventry and West Greenwich.
A "desertion notice" from May 4, 1776, lists Prince Greene's age as "24 years of age," which, if true, would indicate he was possibly born in 1752. On June 21, 1778, in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, Prince was married to Rhoda Eldred "by elder Philip Jenkins."
1776, Escape
On May 4, 1776, the day Rhode Island declared independence from Great Britain, Richard Greene published a runaway slave ad in the Providence Gazette for "a Negro Slave named Prince." The ad describes him as "about 24 Years of Age, 5 Feet 4 Inches high, has very thick Lips and small, crooked Legs." Richard Greene offered a "Five Dollar Reward" to anyone who could return Prince to him.
1st Rhode Island Regiment
Enlistment
Historian Robert Geake, in his book From Slaves to Soldiers, writes that Prince Greene was "listed in the 1777 military census and was no doubt eager to enlist in this opportunity for freedom." Between 1777 and 1781, the 1st Rhode Island Regiment fought in the Battle of Red Bank, the Siege of Fort Mifflin, Valley Forge, and the Battle of Rhode Island.
Court-martial
According to Geake, Prince Greene was "exceptional in being one of a handful of black soldiers to face court martial." On April 10, 1781, in Providence, Rhode Island, while the town was still under martial law, young residents often challenged the local militia and Continental troops after a night of carousing. That night in April, a twenty-three-year-old Providence man named Edward Allen, in the company of another man named John Pitcher, approached the barracks and began to throw stones and hurl "illiberal language" at the soldiers inside.
According to historian John Wood Sweet in his book Bodies Politic, the barracks were location adjacent to the Rhode Island State House and was located there to protect the local gunpowder reserve. Sweet also notes; "The two assailants were men of prime fighting age—Edward Allen was twenty-three—but neither seems to have served in the local militia or in the Continental Army. In this sense, the soldiers they attacked were their substitutes. Whatever touched off their anger that night was apparently tied to the fact that the soldiers in the barracks included members of at least two all-black companies."
Sweet continues; "The soldiers had been slow to defend themselves and their honor, but this insult was too much. One 'negro soldier in the battalion,' Prince Greene--a dark-complexioned man, standing five foot five and about thirty-seven years old—loaded his musket and sailed forth. Clues to his courage come from several sources. It may be that he had already been a free man when he enlisted at Warwick, on 27 March 1777, and agreed to serve for the duration of the war. Very likely he was somehow connected to the town's large Greene clan, which included the state's current governor. In any case, he had been living as a soldier for four years and had seen a good deal of combat. ... The musket ball hit its mark with remarkable precision: it struck the back of Allen's head, bored a hole about an inch in diameter, and shot through his forehead. He died instantly."