The US Army as a Slaveholding Institution

Officers of the army of the new American republic demanded servants as a mark of their rank and privilege, a custom inherited from European armies and the Continental Army. But the US Army, established after the Revolution in 1784, was avowedly republican: the use of soldiers as servants came under criticism by soldiers and civilians alike. Men enlisted to be soldiers not orderlies, waiters, or body servants. The solution, at least for the officers, explains historian Yoav Hamdani, was slavery.