Black Men Permitted in Massachusetts Militia

A 1652 Massachusetts law required all men between 16 and 60, including Black and Native American men, to participate in the colonial militia — one of the earliest formal recognitions that Black men could bear arms and serve in a military capacity in the English colonies. This stands in contrast to the later systematic exclusion of Black men from militias as racial slavery hardened. The policy reflected the early colonial period before rigid racial hierarchies were fully established in New England.