You donât read very well, do you. I said they were formed for defence. Whom were they defending against? As I didnât think I needed to specify, at the start they mostly defended against the Americans, first when they got stroppy at the way the Europoids claimed to own the land forever rather than just while they were using it, and later when some sided with the French and made raids from Canada during the so-called French & Indian War.
The slave states got crazy early, forbidding enslaved people and Americans from having arms. But ill-doers never feel safe, so pretty soon they forbid even free Black people and friendly Americans from arms.
Virginia was probably the craziest, but there was plenty enough blame to go around.
And of course, since ill-doers never feel safe, they always try to game the system when they get into trouble: when Whites were in short supply during the Revolution, rather than quit revoluting they did recruit and arm Black folk and Americans, promising them freedom if they survived, money for all the Redcoats they killed, and support on the public nickel if they were disabled.
But Prince Estabrook was one of the very few who got anything for the sacrifices they made: he was one of the 39 Lexington militia who turned out in time to meet the Redcoats on 19th April '75, was wounded in the exchange of fire, served in the militia through the war, did get his freedom at the end, lived the rest of his life uneventfully, and was laid to rest in a churchyard along with the White militia who served with him.