Basel Norman (1760–1830), born free in Frederick County, Maryland, was one of 5,000 African Americans to fight against the British during the War of Independence (1776–1783). In 1777, when he was seventeen years old, Basel joined Colonel John Gumby’s Infantry Regiment and served in many campaigns. After his discharge from military service, he married Fortune Stevens and eventually claimed his land grant, provided by the Ordinance of 1787 to Revolutionary War veterans, and settled in Marietta, Ohio.
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