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{{Short description|American revolutionary soldier and musician (1743–1822)}}
'''Barzillai Lew''' (November 5, 1743 {{mdash}} January 18, 1822) was an [[African-American]] soldier who served with distinction during the [[American Revolutionary War]].

==Family History==
Barzillai Lew's story began with Primus Lew of [[Groton, Massachusetts]] (a former servant of Captain Matthew Bonner), and Margret Lew (a former servant of Samuel Scripture). As free blacks, Primus and Margret Lew married in 1742 and they had two sons and two daughters. Primus served as a musician in the French and Indian War in 1747.  In 1752, Primus married again to Rose Canterbury and bought a farm on the west side of the Nashua River in the Pepperell section of Groton, Massachusetts and they had two children.

Primus and Margret Lew's oldest son Barzillai (pronounced BAR-zeal-ya) often called "Zeal" or "Zelah," was born a free black in Groton, Massachusetts November 5, 1743.<ref>Groton, Massachusetts Vital Records</ref> Following in his father’s footsteps, Barzillai Lew was a fifer in Captain Thomas Farrington’s Company from Groton, which marched northward for “the total reduction of Canada."  From March 10, 1760 to December 1, 1760, he served with the English forces against the French and Indians during the [[French and Indian War]], and was probably present in the [[Montreal Campaign|capture of Montreal]] by the British.<ref>Middlesex County Probate Records</ref>  Lew was known as "big and strong with an extraordinary talent as a musician."<ref name="Butler, Caleb 1848, p. 278">Butler, Caleb. "History of the Town of Groton: Including Pepperell and Shirley." Boston: T.R. Marvin, 1848, p. 278.</ref>

In the mid-1760s, Lew sold his family farm in the [[Pepperell, MA|Pepperell]] section of Groton and moved to [[Chelmsford, Massachusetts]], where he worked as a cooper making barrels.  About 1766, he bought the freedom of Dinah Bowman (1744–1837) for four hundred dollars (2023 value about $40,000) and married her.<ref>University of Massachusetts Lowell, Center for Lowell History, Lowell Historical Society Collection, Rev. Theodore Edson Diaries November 13, 1868.</ref> "Barzillai Lew purchased his wife Dinah of Major Abraham Blood....Barzillai was a cooper by trade and quite dark-colored; Dinah was a mulatto and almost white - bleached out, as some of the slaves were in the South."<ref>History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, editor Duane Hamilton Hurd, 1890, v. 2, p. 310.</ref>

==American Revolutionary War==

===Bunker Hill===
[[File:The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''[[The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill]]'' by [[John Trumbull]], an American patriot and painter who witnessed the battle which took place on June 17, 1775. His depiction of the battle was created nine years later when Trumbull was studying in London. The black man holding a musket pictured in the right corner may have been intended to be Asaba Grosvenor, a slave belonging to the colonial officer he stands behind.]]

At the opening of the American Revolution, Lew's skills and talents were called upon again, and on May 6, 1775, he enlisted in Captain John Ford's Company, 27th Regiment, Chelmsford, Massachusetts.  As soldier, fifer and drummer, Lew fought at the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]] on June 17, 1775. In the military records, Lew is described as "cooper by trade, and quite dark-colored, a large man, six feet tall."<ref name="Butler, Caleb 1848, p. 278"/>  Bunker Hill was one of the most important battles in the American Revolution; inexperienced colonial forces fought a highly trained army of British soldiers.  Less well-known were the approximately three dozen African-American soldiers including Lew, Phillip Abbot{{KIA}}, Alexander Ames, Isaiah Bayoman, Cuff Blanchard, Titus Coburn, Grant Cooper, Caesar Dickenson, Charlestown Eaads, Alexander Eames, Asaba Grosvenor, Blaney Grusha, Jude Hall, Cuff Haynes, Cato Howe, Caesar Jahar, Pompy of Braintree, [[Salem Poor]], Caesar Post, Job Potama, Robin of Sandowne, New Hampshire, [[Peter Salem]], Seasor of York County, Sampson Talbot, Cato Tufts, and Cuff Whitemore, who also took part in the battle.<ref>James Oliver Horton, and Lois Horton. ''In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Community, and Protest among Northern Free Blacks, 1700–1860.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.</ref><ref name="oxfordaasc.com">[http://www.oxfordaasc.com/public/ Oxford African American Studies Center]</ref>

During the bloodiest battle of the war, the British lost 226 troops, with another 828 wounded. The Colonists/Americans counted 140 dead, 301 wounded, and 30 captured. It was said that during the battle, Lew kept American morale high with his fife version of "There's Nothing Makes the British Run like 'Yankee Doodle Dandy.'"<ref name="oxfordaasc.com"/>  The powder horn used by Barzillai Lew in the Revolutionary War is now in collections of the [[DuSable Museum of African American History]] in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]]; it was donated by Gerard Lew, the great-great-grandson of Barzillai Lew and a co-founder of the DuSable Museum.

===Fort Ticonderoga and Burgoyne's surrender===
[[File:Surrender of General Burgoyne.jpg|350px|thumb|right| Surrender of General Burgoyne at Fort Ticonderoga hangs in the United States Capitol Rotunda.]]

In 1777, on his return home to Chelmsford, Lew joined Captain [[Joseph Bradley Varnum]]'s company of volunteers, [[Dracut, Massachusetts]].  In September 1777, Varnum's militia was ordered to [[Fort Ticonderoga]] and the company marched to reinforce the Northern army.  Joseph Bradley Varnum’s son John wrote in his Journal on November 1, 1777. "Jona Parkhurst came home from ye Army, brings word that all is well. ''Zeal is selected'' for a fifer and fiddler for the grand appearance the day that Burgoyne's Famous Army is to be brought in.  A Wonderful Show, a day that our hearts should be employed to speak & live to the praise of God."<ref>"Joseph Bradley Varnum," by John Mitchell Varnum, 1906, bottom page 10</ref> This 'wonderful show' was the surrender of British General [[John Burgoyne]] to American General [[Horatio Gates]] at [[Battle of Saratoga|Saratoga]], after the [[Siege of Fort Ticonderoga (1777)]]. During the American Revolution, African Americans from Massachusetts served as freemen or as slaves with their masters in many local militias.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120413102643/http://www.nps.gov/bost/forteachers/upload/Boston%20Lesson.pdf Patriots of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill]</ref>

===African Americans in the Continental Army===
General [[George Washington]], Commander-in-Chief, excluded African Americans from serving in the [[Continental Army]], until finally on January 2, 1778, Washington responded to a letter from General [[James Mitchell Varnum]] (born in Dracut, Massachusetts and brother of Joseph Bradley Varnum) recommending that Rhode Island's troop quota should be completed with blacks.
Washington urged Rhode Island Governor Nicholas Cooke to give the recruiting officers every assistance.  In February, the Rhode Island legislature approved the action — giving slaves their freedom 
in return for military service.  The resulting black regiment, commanded by white Quaker Christopher Greene was the [[1st Rhode Island Regiment]] also known as the Varnum Continentals.<ref>[http://www.varnumcontinentals.org/ Varnum Continentals]</ref>

==After the American Revolutionary War==
During the war, with wages earned from his years of service, the Lew family purchased a large tract of farmland on the far side of the [[Merrimack River]] in Dracut (now [[Lowell, Massachusetts]].)  They built a house near Varnum Avenue on Zeal Road named for Barzillai (now called Totman Road.)  After the war, Lew returned to his farm in the [[Pawtucketville]] section of Dracut.  In addition to farming, Lew continued to work as a cooper, making barrels for the Middlesex Canal Company.  The Lews were both active members of their community and the Pawtucket Society Church (Congregational) on [[Mammoth Road]].  They raised 13 children, Zadock (1768)<ref>Zadock Lew - Officer, [[Prince Hall Freemasonry]] Lodge, Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts</ref> Amy (1771), Serviah (1773), Eucebea (1775), Barzillai II (1777), Peter (1779),<ref>Peter Lew, Grand Master 1811-1816, [[Prince Hall Freemasonry]] Lodge, Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts</ref> Rufus (1780) – impressed at sea by the British in 1808, Eri (1782), Dinah II (1784), Zimri (1785), Phebe (1788), Lucy (1790) married [[Thomas Dalton (abolitionist)|Thomas Dalton]],<ref>Thomas Dalton, Grand Master 1831-1832, [[ Prince Hall Freemasonry]] Lodge, Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts</ref> and Adrastus (1793).<ref>Chelmsford, Massachusetts and Dracut, Massachusetts Vital records</ref>

"They all possessed a natural talent for music and most of them could play any kind of wind or string instrument - the girls as well as the boys. They formed a complete band and played at all first-class occasions in this vicinity from [[Boston, Massachusetts]] to [[Portland, Maine]]."<ref>History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, editor Duane Hamilton Hurd, 1890, v. 2, p. 311.</ref>  Noted throughout the 19th and 20th centuries as well-educated, skilled, and talented musicians.  It was said "no family in Middlesex County from Lowell to Cambridge could produce so much good music."<ref name="Butler, Caleb 1848, p. 278"/>    They kept an elegant coach and fine span of horses and came on the Sabbath to the Pawtucket Society Church in as much style as any family in the town of Dracut.<ref>Newspaper Article, "American Citizen," 1859</ref>  Dinah Bowman Lew may have been the first African-American woman pianist in American history.  Barzillai Lew died in Dracut on January 18, 1822, and was buried in Clay Pit Cemetery.<ref>Dracut, Massachusetts Vital Records</ref><ref>[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24519597/barzillai-lew Find a grave Barzillai Lew]</ref>  Years later, Dinah Bowman Lew petitioned and received from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a pension for her husband's military service in the American Revolution.

==Legacy==
After his death in 1822, Barzillai Lew's Pawtucketville farm went to his sons, Zadock and Zimri.  Zadock, a well-known musician, died in 1826 without a will and his property was sold at auction.  Zimri died in 1847 in a tragic train accident in Lowell on Fast Day.  A few years earlier in 1844, Zimri's son, Adrastus, married Elizabeth Freeman of [[Derry, New Hampshire]].  They purchased and cleared a piece of woodland off Riverside Street and built a house which still stands on Mount Hope Street.  In 1912, at the age of 91, Elizabeth Freeman Lew recounted in an interview with the Lowell Sun: "The house where I live was, one of the houses which in slavery times, formed one of the underground railroad where runaway slaves would come for shelter and protection on their way to Canada.  Those were terrible times."

Adrastus and Elizabeth Lew had five sons and one daughter.  James, moved to [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], formed a popular dance band, and served as the music advisor to the Cambridge School Committee.  William and Fred opened a successful dry-cleaning and dyeing business in Lowell.

In 1874, William married Isabell Delaney of Virginia and had four children:  Harry, Theresa, Marion, and Gerard.  After graduating from Pawtucketville Junior High School, [[Harry Lew]] entered the family's dry-cleaning and dyeing business.  He was recruited to join Lowell’s Pawtucketville Athletic Club "P.A.C." of the New England Professional Basketball League and was the first to integrate professional basketball in 1902.  Theresa Lew, graduated from Lowell High School as Class [[Salutatorian]] in 1912.  After finishing Lowell Normal School, she taught at the Bartlett School for 25 years.  Marion Lew, also graduated from Lowell High School and the Lowell Normal School music program, she taught piano to generations of Lowell children.  Gerard Lew, also an outstanding athlete, graduated from Lowell High School and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was interviewed by the Lowell Sunday-Telegram in June 1913, about his experiences teaching in a poor, rural, segregated school in Gloucester County, Virginia.

In 1943, musician [[Duke Ellington]] wrote a piano piece in honor of Barzillai Lew.  It is believed that Ellington learned about Barzillai Lew from his high school teacher, African-American historian [[Carter G. Woodson]] at the [[Friendship Armstrong Academy|Armstrong Manual Training School]], [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>[http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d53011ab.htm Duke Ellington Collection, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Archive Center] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016064531/http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d53011ab.htm |date=October 16, 2007 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|United States}}
*[[Thomas Dalton (abolitionist)|Thomas Dalton]]. Lucy Lew, Abolitionist, (wife of Thomas Dalton) daughter of Barzillai Lew
*[[Harry Lew]]. Harry Haskell (Bucky) Lew, First Professional Basketball Player, second great-grand son of Barzillai Lew

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[http://revolution.h-net.msu.edu/essays/adams2.html Adams, Gretchen. "Deeds of Desperate Valor: The First Rhode Island Regiment."]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071026144544/http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1937/Peter_Salem_an_original_patriot African American Registry ''Peter Salem Biography.'']
*[http://www.primaryresearch.org/dracut/ Dracut's Oldest Burying Ground: A Forgotten History.]
*[https://archive.org/details/profilesincourage/mode/2up Mayo, Martha. ''Profiles in Courage: African Americans in Lowell.'']
*[http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/nell/nell.html Neil, William Cooper. ''The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution: With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons.'']
*[http://www.chipublib.org/002branches/woodson/woodsonbib.html Woodson, Carter Godwin.]
{{Boston African American community pre-Civil War|state=expanded}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lew, Barzillai}}
[[Category:African-American musicians]]
[[Category:Massachusetts militiamen in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:People of Massachusetts in the French and Indian War]]
[[Category:People from Dracut, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:1743 births]]
[[Category:1822 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Groton, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:African-American history of Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from colonial Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Black Patriots]]
[[Category:Free people of color]]