2023 Patriots Challenge Winners

 

NPS Photo / G. Purifoy

More than 30 years ago, the Valley Forge Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. unveiled the Monument to Patriots of African Descent in Valley Forge National Historical Park.

Today, the Patriots Challenge is an annual contest for students in grades 6-8 sponsored by the Valley Forge Alumnae Chapter that helps teach young people about the history of African Americans in the American Revolution.

Each year, local students research the contributions of Black people during the American Revolutionary War and submit an original essay, poem, song, rap, or play. Three winners receive a $150 prize.

Read the 2023 contest winners below!

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Whispered History

By Jamila Burgos, 8th grade - Westtown School

Have you heard of them?
these people that stood for a country that didn't stand for them?
People that bled and fought through grime
yet their names are not echoed through time
simply whispers floating through the changing winds

Have you heard of him?
Crispus Attucks,
a man who escaped slavery
and sailed on the windy, unpredictable sea
only to die in the Boston Massacre
fighting till death.
two bullets was all it took
straight to the chest.
And Attucks became the first martyr,
first fallen out of five.

Have you heard of her?
Phyllis Wheatley,
Who fought with words instead of swords,
verses filled with messages never heard from a black woman before.
enslaved but supported and educated well,
publishing a book.
First black woman, third woman to ever do such a thing
especially a book overflowing with cries for change.

Have you heard of him?
Peter Salem,
who killed a key british officer
putting his life at risk for others.
A man he was,
yet at Bunker hill he was known not just as a man,
but as a hero for all.

Have you heard of him?
James Armistead Lafayette,
a double agent.
Truth coming out one end
lies out the other.
A trust so easy to build but all a facade.

Have you heard of them?
the African descendants that fought for a freedom
they never had the privilege to experience themselves?

Humans just like us,
with families and friends
putting their life at pause to save everyone else.
Everyone that treated them wrong,
Every slave owner who whipped with no mercy
Everyone that shipped them across the Atlantic to treat them as animals
shackling and selling them as livestock.
Every daughter and son.
Mother and father.
Every friend and lover.

Putting their life on pause to save every loved one and
every, single, enemy.

Placing their very own lives at risk,
for a country that would never reciprocate.

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The 1st Rhode Island Regiment

By Yashvi Jain, 8th Grade, Tredyffrin Easttown Middle School

We weren't deserters
We weren't cowards
We were simply men in battle
A mostly black brigade

They needed more support
They sent out word
Washington’s despair
Gave us hope

Our masters gave us permission
Like children we needed to ask
Our release was guaranteed
We fought for a country not ours
For a freedom we deserved

Vaccinated against smallpox
We were sent into training
Using guns

Our white counterparts
Had accepted us
But the authorities
Still weren’t sure
Their fear of a rebellion
Obstructing their vision

We became a part of the army
But we were only privates
African Americans
Native Americans
All still supervised by a white

The Battle of Rhode Island
The French ships were damaged
We fought the British allies
Off on our own

While many of our men
Were in sickness
Suffering from diseases
Dying from diseases

The others
Suffered from the weather
With not enough clothes
And resources

And yet the Battle of Rhode Island
Was viciously fought
We lined up
Defending the most exposed
Part of the American line

They wanted to sacrifice us
Black lives weren't as
Important
As the lives of whites

But we still fought
With everything we had
Killing Hessians the
First time they attacked
And then again
Then again

They tried to get through us
Three times
But we stood our ground
And fought

We were loyal to our own
Never deserting
Never leaving someone behind

The war was taking its toll
On all our men
The stress
The sickness

Everyone wanted to leave
We wanted to go back
Back home
Wherever that may be

Our families were still enslaved
If they were alive at all
But we had made it through

The war was over
Our tiredness like nothing
We had ever felt before
But at least we weren’t slaves
We were alive
And free

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The Colors of War

By Jocelyn Huang, 8th Grade - Tredyffrin/Easttown Middle School

Blue is the color of freedom
A sea of soldiers, black and white
marched to douse the flames
that blanketed the night in shadows
snuffing out all sparks of life

Red is the color of fear
Fire, the sensation of getting shot
flesh ripped open, as the bullet buries itself
digging a grave in skin
another life dripping down the drain

Black is the color of power
Like the bullet that killed British Major John Pitcairn
in the heart of the battle
at Bunker Hill, fired by enslaved man Peter Salem
who received no formal recognition until sixty-six years after his death

Black is the color of strength
the strength Salem Poor used on Bunker Hill
to cover the retreating units
where he shot and killed Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie
to protect injured Patriot soldiers

Black is the color of bravery
It is James Armistead Lafayette
the spy, sent to the British on a mission
who secured the victory at Yorktown
with only his ears, pen, and paper

Black is the color of ink
That stained the fingers of Phillis Wheatley when writing
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
becoming the first American slave—the third American woman
to ever publish a book

Black is the color of perseverance
The First Rhode Island Regiment
forced to join by a desperate General George Washington
drove back three Hessian regiments
at the Battle of Rhode Island

Black is the color of hope
the hope that drove thousands of African Americans
to fight for liberty and independence
It was the beginning of a long journey
for peace and equality

White is the color of peace
When that flag danced in the air
like an angel flying high
all fighting halted, and the nation held its breath
trying not to drown in hope