Richard Pierpoint
Source: Web (hikes.brucetrail.org)
Military • Historical Archive • 🇸🇳 Senegal • 1 views

Richard Pierpoint 🇸🇳

Black Dick / Richard Pierpoint (Known as "Captain Dick")
Senegalese-Born Black Loyalist Veteran, Coloured Corps Sergeant in War of 1812
Born c. 1744 🇸🇳 Bundu (Senegambia), Senegal
Passed Away c. 1838 Garafraxa (Ontario), Canada
Lifespan 94 years old
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"A warrior who has tasted freedom will fight with his last breath to preserve the soil where he found liberty."

Archival Overview

Senegalese-born Black Loyalist soldier, griot, and War of 1812 veteran who helped form the all-Black Coloured Corps to defend Upper Canada at Queenston Heights and Fort George.

Biographical Record

Captured into slavery in West Africa at age 16 and brought to America, Pierpoint gained his freedom by enlisting in the British Butler's Rangers during the American Revolution. Settling in Upper Canada near St. Catharines, he petitioned the colonial government in 1794 for land grant adjustments on behalf of free Black settlers.

At age 68, when the War of 1812 erupted, Pierpoint petitioned Major-General Isaac Brock to raise an all-Black military company; serving as sergeant in Captain Runchey's Coloured Corps, he fought heroically at Queenston Heights and Fort George. In old age, he received a land grant on the Grand River near modern Fergus, Ontario.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Pierpoint Settlement Burial Site
Fergus (Ontario), Canada
GPS: 43.7000, -80.3800
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