Lafayette, James

LAFAYETTE, JAMES. (1748?–1830). Continental spy. Since he was born a slave, little is known of Lafayette's early life other than that William Armistead of New Kent County, Virginia, claimed him as property. In 1781 Armistead was a Richmond commissary supplying Continental forces. When the marquis de Lafayette moved south to battle the British under General Charles Cornwallis, he put out a quiet call for spies. James Armistead, as he was then known, won his owner's consent to volunteer, hoping his service might win him freedom. Taking a job as a forager with the British at Portsmouth, Virginia, James moved between the two armies, carrying information to Lafayette. When the British promised him freedom for spying on the Americans, James became a double agent, supplying Cornwallis with false information while keeping Lafayette apprised of British movements. It was the slave James who informed the Americans that Cornwallis intended to fortify Yorktown and wait there for the fleet to extricate his forces, allowing the French and Americans to trap the British force.

Despite his valuable aid in winning the Revolution, James did not receive the reward he expected: after Cornwallis's surrender, William Armistead reclaimed his slave. In 1786 Armistead finally came around to supporting James's petition for freedom as long as he, Armistead, received recompense. Armed with a letter from Lafayette praising his courage, James won a hearing from the Virginia legislature, which paid Armistead for James's freedom in January 1787. James took the last name of Lafayette, staying in New Kent County and becoming a slave owner himself. In 1816 he received a small pension from the state and in 1824 was recognized in the crowd at Yorktown by Lafayette and warmly greeted. James Lafayette died at his home on 9 August 1830.

SEE ALSO African Americans in the Revolution.?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kaplan, Sidney, and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Rev. ed. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.