A. Attention Getter: For sixteen hundred years prior to the war between Great Britain and the Colonies, the pages of history bear no record of the Negro as a soldier. Tracing his separate history in the Revolutionary War is a task of much difficulty, for the reason that while individual instances of valor and patriotism abound there were so few separate bodies of Negro troops that no separate record appears to have been made. The simple fact is that the fathers, as a rule, enlisted men both for the Army and Navy, just as now, only continued by the Navy, they were assigned wherever needed, without regard to race or color.
             B. Thesis Statement: Today I thank you for the opportunity for allowing me to speak to you of how the steadfast courage and heroism of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts (Negro) Infantry helped pave the way for the enlistment of blacks in the United States Armed Forces.
             C. Relate the Topic to the Audience: There are still issues in our society when it comes to issues involving a person's race and the color of our skin. This is a fight that has been going on for centuries. Patriotism does not come by the color of our skin but, from within.
             D. Establish Credibility: In May 1775, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety voted that thereafter only free men should be enlisted. In July, General Gates issued an order prohibiting further enlistments of Negroes, but saying nothing of those already in the service. In October, a council of war, presided over by General Washington, comprising three Major Generals and six Brigadier Generals, voted unanimously against the enlistment of slaves, and by a decided majority against further enlistments of Negroes. Ten days later in a conference held at Cambridge, Massachusetts, participated in by General Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Lynch, and the deputy governors of Connecticut and Rhode Island, the same action was taken. Varner's Rhode Islan...