12. Self Help
In 1775, upon realizing that his master had no intention of freeing him, Titus Cornelius decided to free himself by running away. Lucky for him, he fled one day after Virginia’s governor had issued a proclamation offering freedom to all slaves who escaped their American masters to serve the British. So the young black man made his way to the Virginia Tidewater region, where he changed his name to Tye.
Tye settled in Williamsburg, Virginia, and initially made his living performing a series of odd jobs. Eventually, he enlisted in Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment, took to his new life under arms like a fish to war, and distinguished himself. The fortunes of war eventually returned him to New Jersey, and he ended up where he had once been enslaved, Monmouth County, as a freedman under arms in British service. There, he ended up distinguishing himself and earning a place in history as Colonel Tye.