state militias

Examples of state militias in the following topics:

• The Second Amendment

  • The Second Amendment gives the right to bear arms, and can arguably apply to individuals or state militias depending on interpretation.
  • At the time that the amendment was written, there was controversy around the question of state versus federal rights.
  • The right to bear arms was seen as a check against tyranny, both domestic and foreign, and was designed to help states easily raise organized militias.
  • The amendment reads "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. " In some interpretations of the bill the right to bear arms is a collective right, exclusively or primarily given to states to arm a militia.
  • Chicago (2010), the Supreme Court ruled that Second Amendment rights could not be limited by state or local governments.

• Colonial Armed Forces

  • Each colony sponsored a local militia.
  • The development of the Continental Army was always a work in progress, and Washington used both his regulars and state militia throughout the war.
  • The minutemen constituted about a quarter of the entire militia.
  • However, the minuteman model for militia mobilization, married with a very professional, small standing army, was the primary model for the land forces of the United States up until 1916 when the National Guard was established.
  • The Continental Army was troubled by poor logistics, inadequate training, short enlistments, interstate rivalries, and Congress’s inability to compel the states to finance or equip its troops with food and supplies.

• The Second Amendment

  • The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
  • A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

• Nat Turner's Rebellion

  • A white militia with twice the manpower of the rebels and reinforced by three companies of artillery eventually defeated the insurrection.
  • Within a day of the suppression of the rebellion, the local militia and three companies of artillery were joined by detachments of men from the USS Natchez and USS Warren, which were anchored in Norfolk, and militias from counties in Virginia and North Carolina surrounding Southampton.
  • The state executed 56 blacks.
  • Militias killed at least 100 blacks, and probably many more.
  • Other slave-holding states across the South enacted similar laws restricting activities of slaves and free blacks.

• The British Strategy

  • The number of British regular troops present in Canada in July 1812 was officially stated to be 6,034, supported by Canadian militia.
  • Throughout the war, the British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies was the Earl of Bathurst.
  • The surrender not only cost the United States the village of Detroit, but control over most of the Michigan territory.
  • On October 13, United States forces were again defeated at the Battle of Queenston Heights, where General Brock was killed.
  • It opened a long era of peaceful relations between the United States and the British Empire.

• The Whiskey Rebellion

  • The cabinet recommended the use of force, except for Secretary of State Edmund Randolph, who urged reconciliation.
  • Washington did both: he sent commissioners to meet with the rebels while raising a militia army.
  • On August 7, Washington issued a presidential proclamation announcing, with "the deepest regret", that the militia would be called out to suppress the rebellion .
  • The militia was called up from New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and eastern Pennsylvania and produced a large force of over 12,000 men.
  • Because relatively few men volunteered for militia service, a draft was used to fill out the ranks, causing further unrest in other states.

• Lexington and Concord

  • Gage’s actions led to the formation of local rebel militias that were able to mobilize in a minute’s time.
  • British General Thomas Gage, the military governor and commander-in-chief, received instructions on April 14, 1775, from Secretary of State William Legge, to disarm the rebels and imprison the rebellion's leaders.
  • On the night of April 18, 1775, General Gage sent 700 men to seize munitions stored by the colonial militia at Concord.
  • Shots were exchanged, eight minutemen were killed, the outnumbered colonial militia dispersed, and the British moved on to Concord.
  • The Revolutionary War had begun, and the militia army continued to grow as surrounding colonies sent men and supplies.

• Fighting for Liberty

  • Both free and enslaved Africans had served in local militias, especially in the North, defending their villages against attacks by Native Americans.
  • In March 1775, the Continental Congress assigned units of the Massachusetts militia as Minutemen.
  • Peter Salem, who had been freed by his owner to join the Framingham militia was one of the blacks in the militia.
  • American states had to meet quotas of troops for the new Continental Army, and New England regiments recruited black slaves by promising freedom to those who served in the Continental Army.
  • In state navies, some blacks served as pilots, such as in South Carolina which had significant numbers of black pilots.

• The Fifth Amendment

  • No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
  • The Fifth Amendment states that everyone deserves a Grand Jury in the case of a capital crime.

• Forms of Resistance

  • Three of the most infamous uprisings that took place in the United States during the nineteenth century are the revolts by Gabriel Prosser in Virginia (1800); Denmark Vesey in Charleston, South Carolina (1822); and Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia (1831).
  • Eighteen slaves, including Nat Turner, were hanged for their part in the rebellion, and 100 to 200 African Americans were killed by militias and angry mobs in retaliation, exceeding the fatalities of Turner’s rebellion itself.
  • The rebellion was suppressed by volunteer militias and a detachment of the U.S.
  • Ninety-five black people were killed via executions and direct confrontations with opposing militia forces, and in the weeks following the uprising, an additional 44 accused insurgents were captured, tried, and executed.
  • Due to the role of drums in signaling the Stono Rebellion of 1739, slave owners and state governments tried to prevent slaves from making or playing musical instruments.