DAVIDSON -- My ancestor, Pedro Francisco, was born on July 9, 1760, to a wealthy family in the beautiful Azores Islands. Five years later, young Pedro's life was changed forever when he was kidnapped by pirates and never saw his family again. About six weeks after the kidnapping, he was abandoned on a dock in Virginia. Today, a monument stands in Hopewell, Va., in honor of where he was found.
Despite Francisco's fine European clothes, his fate was ultimately decided by his dark skin color. Now in the New World, his name was changed to Peter, and Judge Anthony Winston, Patrick Henry's uncle, took him in to work on his 3,600-acre plantation. The judge had several children of his own who received a good education, but Peter was treated as a slave and was not taught to read or write.
In March 1775, Judge Winston took Peter Francisco to the Virginia Convention at Saint John's Church in Richmond. Peering through a church window, Peter heard Patrick Henry's famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, which ignited a passion for freedom within him.
Francisco had grown to a 6'6" tall giant weighing 260 pounds when he joined the 10th Virginia Regiment in December 1776. Standing a foot taller than the average man on the battlefields of the Revolutionary War, his huge frame was too big for the average-size sword - a shortcoming that George Washington would later remedy.
Peter's military record shows that he participated in most of the major encounters of the Revolution in the North and South. He was wounded in the battles of Brandywine and Monmouth and was even hospitalized at Valley Forge with Washington's men. But it was the Battle of Stony Point, on the Hudson River, where Peter Francisco became known as the "Hercules of the Revolution."
Washington had assembled a team of 20 commandos to forge a path through a swamp and scale a 300-foot rock wall to get inside the British fortress. Peter was the second man over the wall and killed two redcoats before taking a 9-inch gash in the abdomen. With blood pouring out of his gaping wound, he reached the Union Jack flag and collapsed on it as the Continental Army stormed the fort. Only three commandos survived the initial raid. Peter was among them.
His wound healed and the fighting now moved to the South. Francisco was at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina when the Continental Army was in a disorderly retreat. While his comrades ran from the field of battle, he used his Samson-like strength to pick up an 1,100-pound cannon out of its carriage and onto a horse-drawn wagon. This story was immortalized on a bicentennial U.S. postage stamp in 1976.
On March 13, 1781, George Washington had a 6-foot-long broadsword delivered to Peter just two days before the critical Battle of Guilford Courthouse in our state. Peter used his massive sword to kill 11 redcoats. A monument now stands in Greensboro in honor of his fierce fighting that day.
Three states, Virginia, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, observe Peter Francisco Day every March 15 - but not North Carolina.
George Washington is reported to have said of Francisco "Without him, we would have lost two crucial battles, perhaps the war, and with it our freedom. He was truly a one-man army." These words were engraved on a monument in New Bedford, Mass.
Unfortunately, Peter's story is not widely known today, but I have committed my life to telling his story. One day I hope that our great state of North Carolina will pass a resolution to observe Peter Francisco Day on March 15.
Travis Bowman, author of "Hercules of the Revolution," lives in Davidson. He is working on a History Channel documentary about Peter Francisco's life.
