Race is an outdated concept that saw its most prominent day at the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century and its was the scientific justification for many racist practices. Nowadays it is a debunked concept that current science has shown flawed: it is proven that humanity is one single race with phenotypic differences that do not make up different races. What used to be considered different races are now considered merely different ethnic groups or populations (the first focuses on cultural traits and the latter on geographical coordinates).
True. A number of soldiers within the Continental Army, and especially Washington's during the Valley Forge incident would desert due to the poor conditions the army and campaign were in.