Colonel Tye
November 8, 1775
A Timeline of the Escaped Slave Titus who Became the Dreaded Loyalist Raider Colonel Tye
On November 8, 1775, a 22-year-old slave named Titus ran away from his owner and master, John Corlies of Colts Neck. Corlies was a Quaker who did not agree with Monmouth County Quaker views on the handling of slaves. Quakers during...
November 15, 1775
Titus Becomes Tye in Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment of Black Loyalist Soldiers
On November 15, 1775, the former Colts Neck slave named Titus, now calling himself simply "Tye," took part in the first armed conflict in American history involving an organized unit of African American soldiers. But they were fighting for the...
July 15, 1779
Colonel Tye and his Black Brigade Become the Scourge of Monmouth County Patriots
Col. Tye, now based in Refugeetown on Sandy Hook, along with other escaped slaves, black freedmen, and loyalists from Monmouth County as well as elsewhere. Col. Tye begins a reign of terror, leading raids into his former neighborhoods at the...
September 1, 1780
The Fatal Showdown Between Colonel Tye and Joshua Huddy
Original illustration exclusively for Monmouth Timeline, ©2021 by Charles Swerdlow, all rights reserved. In the years following the Battle of Monmouth, residents of Monmouth County engaged in an escalating civil war between residents siding with the Revolutionary cause, and residents...
November 25, 1783
After the Death of Tye, The Black Brigade Soldiers On
Following the death of Colonel Tye, the Black Brigade came under the leadership of the African Bahamian soldier Stephen Blucke, whose Black Pioneers together with the Brigade made frequent raids from Sandy Hook into Long Island and New Jersey even...