Between five thousand and nine thousand Black Americans, free and enslaved, served in the Continental Army and the state militias during the Revolutionary War. In South Carolina specifically, the records show forty-one Black men in Continental regiments, twenty-one in militia companies, and nine in the navy — and that's only the documented portion of an under-recorded reality. Forty-eight of the seventy-one in state service were free men when they enlisted; the others were enslaved men whose owners had sent them as substitutes or who served under arrangements that promised eventual freedom. The Spartanburg Regiment of the South Carolina militia, organized in 1775, was active in the southern campaigns and likely fielded a few such men at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781 — the action this figure depicts, where Daniel Morgan's combined Continental and militia force destroyed Tarleton's British Legion in less than an hour.

This figure is W. Britain's three-dimensional miniature of Don Troiani's Soldier Study Black Militiaman of the Spartanburg S.C. Militia — both the print and the figure are available at Breagans. Troiani depicts him in the practical dress of a southern frontier militiaman: rust-colored hunting frock over a green waistcoat, white breeches showing the wear of campaigning, gaiters, slouch hat, the standard militia kit of cross-belts and cartridge box. He carries both a musket and a pistol — common for militia who supplied their own weapons. He pairs with the 1775-83 American Militiaman and the broader American Revolution & Federal Era collection.

1/30 scale (60mm), matte-painted, single figure boxed. Catalog number 16108. As with the rest of the W. Britain modern range, the painting is photographic-quality detail intended to read well in dioramas and display cases.