OPINION
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY February 1 - 15, 2019
Tinig Migrante Black History Matters: Black Soldiers in the
Filipino-American War
By E. Maestro
American soldiers fired the first
shots that started the Filipino-American
War on February 6, 1899 which
ranged for more than three years. This
war has been described as America’s
“first Vietnam War” because of the
atrocities against the Filipino civilian
population (e.g. strategic hamlets,
massacres, “water cure”, killings
of civilians, including children) and
because of the American occupation
and “pacification” campaign to crush
the Filipino revolutionary fighters who
had launched the first war of national
liberation in this part of the world.
American troops were sent
to the Philippines at the turn of the
20th century to stop the Philippine
revolutionary forces and secure
America’s foothold in the region. In
the Revolution of 1896, brave Filipino
men and women ended 300 years
of Spanish rule and proclaimed the
First Philippine Republic. Imperialist
United States did not like this at all.
Thousands of American soldiers
were shipped to the Philippines
and among them were some 7,000
African-American soldiers in all-Black
regiments, segregated from the white
soldiers.
In an article exclusive to Bicol
Mail in 2013, Alex Umali wrote about
the Black American soldiers called
the “Buffalo Soldiers” because,
according to Umali, “apart from
their dark color, they were noted for
their stamina and their resilience to
malaria and dysentery.” Umali credits
this unknown piece of history from
Law Professor Gill Boehringer who
had gone through the records of the
US Army, from researcher and writer
Rene G. Ontal and from the African-
American historian Anthony Powell.
Two of these Buffalo soldiers
were Lewis Russell and Edmund Du
Bose of the 9th and 10th Cavalries;
they were descendants of slaves and
it is not hard to imagine what they felt
or what they thought when they saw
the less than humane treatment of
the Filipinos by the American forces.
They must have heard the white
Reinforcements: When Filipinos shifted to guerilla tactics, additional U.S. troops, including black soldiers were sent
to the Philippines. (Source: the Anthony Powell Collection) Credits: Photo from Positively Filipino
officers and soldiers use the word
“nigger” to refer to the Filipinos. Or
they must read pamphlets addressed
“To the Colored American Soldier”
which called for them to join their
fellow oppressed “coloreds”, i.e. the
Filipinos. They surely saw a determined
people and army bent on defending
their revolution and independence
against America. At any rate, Russell
and Du Bose defected to the Filipino
revolutionary forces in Albay and were
later joined by John Dalrymple, Fred
Hunter, Garth Shores, and William
Victor, fellow Black soldiers from the
9th Cavalry.
There is also David Fagen who
defected to the Filipino revolutionary
forces under the command of General
Urbano Lacuna in Central Luzon and
fought against the soldiers of the US
Army. Rene G. Ontal wrote that Fagen
inspired far more than 20 other black
defectors, and 12 of them joined
Fagen in active service on the Filipino
side.
The Buffalo Soldier defectors
followed their conscience and
principles and in the spirit of solidarity,
committed themselves to fighting
with the revolutionary forces against
imperial United States. They chose to
go with the army fighting a just war
instead of staying with the occupying
army.
Russell and Lewis were caught
and were hanged before a crowd of
three thousand at the public plaza
in Guinobatan, Albay on Feb 7th,
1902. Shores and Victor were sent
back to Fort Leavensworth, Kansas to
serve their life term imprisonments,
Darlymple was reported to have died
of fever while in the mountains of
Albay with the Filipino guerillas, and
Hunter was “killed while escaping
custody”. Fagen was reported to have
been killed and beheaded by a local
hunter but the $600 bounty on Fagen
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
was never awarded.
As we mark Black History
Month this February in Canada, we
must remember the Black Soldiers
in our Filipino people’s history who
opposed America’s pacification war
in the Philippines and took the side
of the Filipinos and fought alongside
them. Umali described the Black
comrades as “descendants of slaves,
[who] discarded their blue uniforms
and shed their blood on the black
volcanic soil of Albay.”
Solidarity,
internationalism
is a better word maybe, describes
the action of the Black soldiers in
defecting and joining the Filipinos
in their struggle against imperialist
United States.
A marker for the Black soldiers
who adopted the Filipino revolution as
their own and who fought alongside
their Filipino comrades is not an bad
idea. Let’s build that marker in Albay!