True or False: About 5000 African-Americans fought for the colonial cause in the Continental Army.

According to the PBS website (see the link below), true. About 5,000 African-Americans fought in the Continental Army for the colonial cause during the Revolutionary War. Many African-Americans fought for the British Army, which recruited the slaves of many American slave masters. African-Americans tended to join armies that promised them freedom. For example, Lord Dunmore, the Governor of Virginia, promised freedom to slaves who joined the Loyalist cause. About 800 slaves joined his regiment, and others were inspired to run away. About 100,000 African-Americans were killed while fighting, died during the Revolutionary War, or found the means to escape during the war. Many African-Americans who served the Loyalist cause wound up unfortunately being enslaved again after the Revolutionary War. 

African-American patriots fought in the battles of Lexington and Concord and at Bunker Hill at the beginning of the war, but then George Washington, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, decreed that African-Americans could not join the Continental Army. Later, he rescinded this decision and allowed slaves and freed blacks to join the Rhode Island regiment.