During the American Revolutionary War, Jack Sisson was an enslaved African American who became a militia volunteer and was vital in the capture of British Gen. Richard Prescott. Thomas Sisson of Tiverton, Rhode Island, owned Sisson, who was born around 1743. Sisson’s early life is unknown, but he was described as a tall, heavy, and muscular man who answered to Tack, Guy Watson, and Prince.
Sisson enters the historical narrative at a pivotal juncture early in the war. During the Revolutionary War, Gen. Charles Henry Lee was the second in command of the American army (1775-1783). On December 13, 1776, Lee was apprehended by British dragoons (mounted infantry) at Widow White’s Tavern in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. It was common for opposing sides to trade officers of equal rank captured in raids or battles back then, but the Americans had no British officer of such rank to trade for Gen. Lee.
In June 1777, Maj. Barton, second in command of the Rhode Island state militia, was notified by a Newport local that a commanding general of the British army was residing in a neighboring farm, and a plot was devised to capture him.
Col. Stanton, the commander of the Rhode Island state militia and Maj. Barton’s superior officer, directed the dispatch of five whaleboats from Providence for the raid. Barton requested volunteers from the militia, and twenty white and twenty African Americans, including Sisson, volunteered. Sisson piloted the lead boat, which was carrying Barton and nine other men. On July 4, 1777, at 9 p.m., the group set out for the raid, with a 10-mile hard row ahead of them. A thunderstorm scattered the boats, and they regrouped at the Warrick Neck Battery at 1 a.m. the next day. They couldn’t continue their journey until July 9.
The group arrived at the Overling farm on Aquidneck Island after traversing the rivers and narrowly avoiding detection. They anchored in a tiny cove and waited until dark to launch the raid. Sisson stormed the gatehouse before the sentinel could raise an alarm, and the farmhouse was surrounded. Sisson followed closely behind the colonel as the group moved up the stairs leading to Gen. Prescott’s sleeping quarters.
According to reports, Sisson used his head to force open the locked door and rush in to apprehend Prescott. They quickly returned Prescott and his aide-de-camp Maj. Barrington to the boats and returned to Warrick Battery unharmed. On April 21, 1778, Prescott was exchanged for Gen. Lee.
Sisson’s praise songs were sung around the camp. Sisson enlisted in the newly formed First Rhode Island Regiment, which was mostly made up of freemen and formerly enslaved men, within a year of the raid. Sisson participated in the Battles of Rhode Island and Yorktown. He served with the regiment throughout the war and was granted his freedom at the end. Sisson died at the age of 78 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.