Polish Americans Mark Black History Month

Chet Szarejko (left), chairman of the PAC’s Political Activities Committee, and the organization’s president, Frank Milewski (right), presented each one of them with a reproduction of the Last Will and Testament of General Thaddeus Kosciuszko who served under General George Washington in the American Revolution. Councilmember Sanders is shown holding the document.
 
Like Lafayette, von Steuben and his fellow Pole, Casimir Pulaski, Kosciuszko was a foreign military expert whose dedication to the cause of freedom and independence inspired him to come to America and offer his services to Washington in the war against the British.
 
After the victory was achieved, Kosciuszko returned to Poland to fight once again for the cause of freedom and independence on behalf of his own country. Unfortunately, Kosciuszko’s fight for Poland’s independence was not as successful as his fight for America’s had been. Poland would not regain its freedom until 1918, more than a hundred years later.
 
Before Kosciuszko left the newly-formed United States in 1798, he wanted to do his part in helping America’s African slaves obtain a share of the freedom he helped America win.
 
With this goal in mind, the Polish hero wrote his Last Will and Testament and made Thomas Jefferson his executor. He directed Jefferson to use the money and property in his estate to secure the emancipation of the African Americans (particularly the slaves Jefferson himself owned) and help them become educated and self-reliant.
 
Kosciuszko wrote his will in 1798, exactly 65 years before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. For this reason, many have now come to regard Poland’s Thaddeus Kosciuszko as “America’s First Emancipator.”
 
On returning to his native Poland, Kosciuszko not only left behind a new nation he helped be born but he also left a legacy.
 
Contact: Frank Milewski
         (516) 352-7125
         pacdny@verizon.net