Last updated: January 11, 2024
Person
Prince Dunsick
National Park Service
Quick Facts
Significance:
Prince Dunsick was an African and a patriot of color, who was kidnapped and enslaved as a young man and fought for the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Place of Birth:
Africa
Date of Birth:
Circa 1751
Place of Death:
Leeds, Maine, USA
Date of Death:
Feburary 9, 1838
Prince Dunsick (also called "Prince Bailey") was born somewhere in Africa. He was kidnapped and enslaved at the age of 8. Prince died Feb 9, 1838. In 1776, he was enlisted by his enslaver into Learned's Brigade (Massachusetts). He was discharged March 1780, at West Point, NY.
Dunsick and Hannah Venison were married on October 10, 1780 in Hanover, Plymouth, MA. They moved to Maine. In June of 1819, he was deposed while claiming his veteran's pension and two years later he found himself testifying again on his own behalf, for his rightly owed pension. He was eventually awarded a pension of about $8 a month. Years later on September 5, 1835, Dunsick received a bounty of two hundred acres of land, from the State of Maine.
Dunsick, men like him, and their forgotten families, stepped out of the fringes to serve a nation that kept them and their descendants in the shadows for nearly another two centuries.
The following narrative is drawn from his own words recorded in his various pension depositions:
June 1819
"I Prince Bailey the person named in the Pension Application and papers hereunto annexed, testify and say, that when I was about eight years of age, I was stolen from Africa my native country and brought to America; my original name was Prince Dunsick—but on my arrival I was called by my masters name which was, Bailey. By this name of Prince Bailey, I enlisted and served in the Revolutionary War, agreeably to the declaration annexed and was discharged by the same name. I never lived with my old master Bailey afterwards, and resumed my former name of Dunsick. It was this circumstance which led me, accidentally indeed to subscribe my name Prince Dunsick, which is my original name, instead of Prince Bailey under which name I enlisted and served and which name I ought to have written."
Below: An image of the muster roll recording Dunsick's (Bailey's) discharge in New York. 
December 13, 1821
"I Prince Bailey of Leeds in the County of Lincoln & Commonwealth of Massachusetts a resident citizen of the United States of America on oath declare that in the month of March AD 1777 at Hanover in said Commonwealth I enlisted into the army of the United States aforesaid on the continental establishment in the company commanded by Capt. Seth Drew in the regiment commanded by Colonel John Bailey in Genl Learned’s Brigade in the Massachusetts line & served in the same in the war of the revolution as a private soldier the term of my enlistment which was three years thereafter at the expiration of which term I received an honorable discharge signed by Col. Bedler, which is since lost.
"I further testify that by reason of my reduced circumstances in life I am in need of assistance from my country for support. Wherefore I pray that this application may be transmitted to the Secretary at War to the end that I may be placed on the pension list of the United States agreeably to an Act of Congress passed March 18th 1818, entitled “An Act to provide for certain persons ingaged [engaged] in the land & naval service of the United States in the revolutionary war.
"I Prince Bailey, lagged fifty five years—pensioner under the Law of Congress of
March 18th 1818, do upon oath testify and declare that the land thust mentioned in my schedule of the 13th June 1820. I have conveyed to Simeon Rose and Marc Sylvester to whom I was justly indebted. I held this property upon the strength of my pension, from the government, & when it was known that I was stricken from the Pension Roll, my creditors all called upon me, and I was obliged to sell my land, so that I now have no Real Estate, and no personal property except two cows and a few articles of old furniture. All not exceeding thirty dollars in value. I am old and quite infirm, am a native of Africa, having been stolen by the Americans before the Revolutionary War, and taken by them from my native land. I served three years in the war of the Revolution; was in both of the Battles at the taking of Burgoyne; and was in the Battle of Monmouth. I am not nearly past labor upon which I have heretofore depended for support; my wife is also quite feeble and able to do but little labor if I am not again restored to the pension Roll, I must depend upon charity for my support—at the time I was stolen and taken from my native land, I rec’d a severe wound in my head by means of a fall down the vessels hole, which wound very much afflicts me at the present time."