Peter Salem: 1750 - 1816
Author’s Note: Courage rarely announces itself. It forms through risk, resistance, and consequence long before history chooses names to remember. The Courage They Didn’t Teach moves decade by decade from the mid 1700s onward, setting aside hero worship to focus on moments when retreat looked safer but resolve demanded sacrifice. Please note that, since these people weren't readily celebrated, historical information may be light at times.
Each entry follows one life that faced danger, opposition, or erasure and stood firm without promise of reward. Some endured violence in the open. Others absorbed pressure in silence. Together, these stories show courage as a skill shaped under strain and refined long before applause, if applause comes at all.
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Crowds admire a grand machine with polished gears and bright brass plates. Amid the motion and noise, few people see the small steel pin buried deep in the frame. Pull it free, and the whole piece of equipment falls apart.
Peter Salem served as one of those unseen lynchpins.
Salem was born in October 1750 in Framingham, Massachusetts, enslaved under Capt. Jeremiah Belknap. In early 1775, Belknap sold him to Maj. Lawson Buckminster, a local militia leader, who freed him so he could enlist in the patriot cause.
Like many subjects in this series, Salem chose to fight for a country that hadn't yet granted him equal standing, a decision that required more than bravery; it required resolve.
On April 19, at Lexington and Concord, Peter Salem fought in Captain Simon Edgell’s Framingham company. After this first battle, he transferred to Captain Thomas Drury’s company, which was part of Colonel John Nixon’s 5th Massachusetts Regiment. This company included several other African American minutemen: Titus Coburn, Salem Poor, and Seymour Burr, all of whom fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.
In April 1775, word spread that British troops marched toward Concord, and Salem joined Capt. Simon Edgell's Framington Minuteman fought in the running clashes at Lexington and Concord. Later, Salem served in Col. John Nixon's regiment alongside other black soldiers who stood in the same smoke and dust.
As a member of Col. John Nixon’s regiment, Peter Salem was among the first to rush to Charlestown Neck and Breed’s Hill to help fortify the American positions there.
His colleagues recognized Nixon as a seasoned veteran. He positioned his men in the redoubt on Breed’s Hill, where they remained until the British Regular Army overtook it in a second attack. Each Colonial infantryman had only 13 cartridges, so they needed to fire carefully. Under Col. Nixon’s leadership, Peter Salem found himself at the heart of the battle.
Salem reenlisted and remained with the army as the war widened; he didn't drift home after his first clash. He built years of service, proving that courage lasts longer than a single burst of gunfire.
In June 1775, Colonial forces dug rough defenses of rail and earth over Breed's Hill near Boston.
British troops advanced uphill in tight formation, led by Major John Pitcairn. During the fighting, Pitcairn was hit by a musketball, sending him falling into his soldiers.
Many early American accounts identified Salem as the marksman who fired the shot; his name appeared in recollections from those who were there, and later historians continued to look at the claim.
There's no surviving claim that proves Salem took the shot, but nobody doubts he was there.
Even after the war, New Englanders remained interested in Major Pitcairn’s death. In 1787, the Rev. Dr. Jeremy Belknap, founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, took notes on several details of the battle, including:
A negro man belonging to Groton, took aim at Major Pitcairne, as he was rallying the dispersed British Troops, & shot him through the head, he was brought over to Boston & died as he was landing on the ferry ways.[3]
Probably independent of Eliot’s and Belknap’s notes, which were not published until decades later, Samuel Swett put a similar story into the first major retrospective study of the fight, published in 1818:
Young [Lt. William Richardson of the Royal Irish 18th Regiment of Foot was the first to mount the works and was instantly shot down; the front rank that followed shared the same fate. Among these mounted the gallant Major Pitcairn, and exultingly cried, “The day is ours,” when a black soldier named Salem shot him through, and he fell. His agonized son received him in his arms and tenderly bore him to the boats.
Later, artist John Trumbull painted a black soldier aiming at Pitcairn in his famous scene of the battle, and many believe the figure represents Peter Salem.
The 1787 painting “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill” showed Peter Salem with a musket behind Patriot Thomas Grosvenor just after he had delivered the fatal shot to Pitcairn. That painting hangs in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Salem received a commendation from the Massachusetts General Court for his bravery at Bunker Hill.
Although British forces claimed victory, their losses shocked them, while Colonial morale rose. A steady hand at a desperate second steadied the entire cause.
For roughly four years and eight months, Salem continued to serve; records place him in campaigns stretching from New York to later northern engagements. The man's endurance mattered as much as any single moment.
Again, like many subjects in this series, peace didn't bring Salem wealth. He married Katy Benson in 1783 and worked as a laborer and cane weaver. Sadly, financial hardship marked his later years before he died on August 16, 1816, in the poorhouse at Framingham, before he was buried in an unmarked grave.
In 1882, residents raised a granite monument over his burial site. Recognition was late in arriving, but it finally arrived.
Today, Peter Salem’s legacy is honored in Framingham and beyond. A monument at the town’s Old Burying Ground commemorates his contributions, and his story is preserved as an example of the bravery and sacrifice of Black patriots in the American Revolution. His role in the fight for independence serves as a lasting reminder of the diverse individuals who helped shape the nation’s history.
Even the greatest machines depend on hidden strength; removing the quiet parts leads to the failure of the brighter ones. Peter Salem didn't command armies or write declarations; the man aimed, stood firm, and carried on much longer after headlines faded.
His life showed steady resolve, holding the line when everything seemed ready to give way.
Next up in the series
Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mum Bett, heard the new Massachusetts constitution declare that all men were born free and equal, and chose to hold to its promise.
Enslaved in western Massachusetts, she filed suit for her freedom in 1781 and won.
Her victory helped end slavery in the state without a battlefield or even a musket, showing that courage can stand in a courtroom and compel a very young nation to live, or die, by its own words.
