Something we were not taught in history

“Drury Pettiford, born say 1755, was listed in the payroll of Captain Dudley's 2nd Virginia State Regiment commanded by Colonel Gregory Smith from July to December 1778 (with Elias Pettiford) and served three years... He was in Granville County, North Carolina, on 18 May 1784 when he assigned his right to bounty land and pay due him for his services in the Revolution in Virginia to Samuel Parker of the same county for 3 pounds, 4 shillings with Elizabeth Sweat as witness [Revolutionary War Bounty Warrants, Pattaford, Drewry, Digital Collections, LVA]. He was taxable on 1 poll in Granville County in 1785, head of a household of 2 males and 2 females in Granville in the 1786 state census, and taxable in Granville County on 2 polls and 90 acres in 1788. He moved to Stokes County where he was head of a household of 11 "other free" in 1810 [NC:607]. In his application for a pension on 25 August 1820 he stated that he enlisted in Virginia, that his age was sixty-nine years, and the age of his wife Dicy was sixty-six. …”

http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Pettiford_Riley.htm

So Drury Pettiford, a black man, served three years in the 2nd Virginia, he was granted a land bounty, and in 1788 he was the owner of 90 acres in Granville County, N.C. And, a woman was legal witness to Pettiford's transfer of a land bounty three years after the war ended.