The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
The American Revolution impacted the institution of slavery in two compelling ways.
First, the revolutionary ethos of equality and liberty forced many Americans to critically
reconsider the institution of human bondage. The notion that all men are created equal
directly challenged the ideologies of racial supremacy that underlay chattel slavery.
Second, the war, much of which was fought in the American South, greatly disrupted the
institution of slavery. In 1775, the royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, offered
protection to any servants or slaves who took arms against their rebel masters; British
generals made similar offers throughout the war. Numerous slaves sought freedom
behind British lines, but they often discovered that freedom came at a heavy cost. Some
former slavers were organized into army regiments; strictly supervised by white officers
and prohibited from keeping arms except for in battle. Some were put to work in the
British Army as surveyors, carpenters, blacksmiths, and unskilled laborers. Others were
forced to labor on plantations confiscated from the American rebels, for which they were
paid low wages and charged for their food and clothing. Still others were hired as
servants or butlers for British army officers. Many runaway slaves were ultimately sold
back into slavery in the Caribbean. Thus, fleeing to the British often meant changing one
master for another. Nevertheless, the allure of freedom was strong. When the British
evacuated the Southern States at the end of the war, they took large numbers of former
slaves with them. Six thousand slaves departed from Charleston; four thousand slaves
left Savannah. Some of these individuals reached Canada. One thousand former slaves
made their way to Africa, where they established an abolitionist colony in Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, in the Northern colonies, African Americans faced a much different
circumstance. Numerous free blacks fought as minutemen in the Battles of Lexington,
Concord, and Bunker Hill. Initially, the Continental Congress resisted the idea of
recruiting black soldiers into the Continental Army, but ultimately the scarcity of troops
forced Congress to reverse its policy. As many as five thousand African Americans,
mostly from the North, served in the Continental Army. Many northern slaves offered to
serve in the army if their masters agreed to emancipate them. Revolutionary service thus
offered a path to freedom. In 1779, as the war moved to the Carolinas, Congress advised
all the southern states to raise black regiments. South Carolinians protested bitterly. “We
are much disgusted here at Congress recommending us to arm our Slaves,” wrote the
South Carolina Patriot Christopher Gadsden. “It was received with great resentment as a
very dangerous and impolitic step.”
In the Northern states, the ideology of human rights—all men are created equal—together
with the honorable service of black soldiers, promoted the cause of abolition. Several
Northern states adopted schemes for gradual emancipation. Vermont, the fourteenth state,
declared in its constitution that no person could be held in bondage after they reached
adulthood. In Pennsylvania, Quaker abolitionists fought in the state assembly for gradual
emancipation to begin in 1780. Between 1781-83, Massachusetts courts abolished
slavery in their jurisdiction. Connecticut and Rhode Island enact gradual emancipation
laws in 1784. In the next two decades, New York and New Jersey introduced gradual
emancipation as well. Of course, on the national level, the matter of slavery would not
be settled until the Civil War.
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
The text of Paul Revere’s 1770 engraving of the Boston Massacre mentioned African
American victim Crispus Attucks, but the engraving did not depict him.
Why might Revere have omitted Attucks?
What other symbolism or imagery did Revere use to illustrate the episode?
Image available:
http://www.authentichistory.com/antebellum/revolution/1770_boston_massacre_engravin
g_1-revere.html
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
In contrast to Revere’s engraving, this drawing by Henry Pelham, stepbrother of painter
John Singleton Copley, featured Attucks prominently. Pelham’s image appeared two
weeks after Revere’s. In what ways are the two images similar? In what important ways
are they different? How does each image shape viewers’ understandings of the event?
Image available: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h3147.html
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
The Proclamation of Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia (November
1775)
A PROCLAMATION.
I do hereby further declare all indentured Servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to
Rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining His MAJESTY'S
Troops as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this Colony to a proper Sense
of their Duty, to His MAJESTY'S Leige Subjects . . .
(GOD save the KING.) Full text available:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h42t.html
During the war, the British Army issued repeated proclamations freeing the slaves of
rebel masters. During and after the war, thousands of African Americans evacuated with
the British Army. Many died of diseases aboard British transport ships. Most survivors
were sold into slavery in the Caribbean. But a few did achieve their freedom. Pass issued
by the British Army for the Free Migration of an African American who Took
Refuge behind British lines:
Image available: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h57.html
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson declared that all men are created equal. In
his original draft of the Declaration, Jefferson also condemned King George III for
establishing slavery in the colonies. And yet, Jefferson himself owned slaves. Can these
contradictions be reconciled?
Selections from the Declaration of Independence, including one paragraph from the
original draft that was omitted by the Continental Congress (in italics):
We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness…
[King George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most
sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended
him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur
miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of
INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to
keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his
negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable
commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die,
he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that
liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people for whom he also
obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one
people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES of another.
Full text available: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html
Why would Jefferson criticize King George III for a establishing an institution in which
Jefferson himself participated? Why do you think Congress decided not to include this
passage in the final Declaration of Independence? Was Jefferson being sincere when he
declared that all men are created equal? If so, how can we understand his ownership of
slaves?
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
In his famous Notes on the State of Virginia, written at the close of the Revolution,
Jefferson clearly expressed his belief that blacks are inferior. But he also argued
vehemently that slavery was unjust.
Selections from Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-82):
From “Laws”: And is this difference (in skin color) of no importance? Is it not the
foundation of a greater or less share of beauty in the two races? Are not the fine mixtures
of red and white, the expressions of every passion by greater or less suffusions of colour
in the one, preferable to that eternal monotony, which reigns in the countenances, that
immoveable veil of black which covers all the emotions of the other race? Add to these,
flowing hair, a more elegant symmetry of form, their own judgment in favour of the
whites, declared by their preference of them, as uniformly as is the preference of the
[Orangutan] for the black women over those of his own species. The circumstance of
superior beauty, is thought worthy attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and
other domestic animals; why not in that of man?
From “Manners”: The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise
of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and
degrading submissions on the other . . . Indeed I tremble for my country when reflect that
God is just . . . The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a
contest. Full text available: http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/JefVirg.html
Was Jefferson a racist? Was he a champion of liberty? Is it possible that he could have
been both?
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
The following advertisements appeared in colonial newspapers on the same day that
Congress declared that all men are created equal. These advertisements, which are
typical of slave runaway ads in the colonial and revolutionary period, reveal that not all
Americans subscribed to Jefferson’s notion of liberty and equality.
Continental Journal (Boston), July 4, 1776
New-York Journal, July 4, 1776
Who wrote these ads? Where? For what purpose? Who is described in these ads? How
are they described? How do the writers of these ads “see” the African American body?
How do they “see” African American people? What other thoughts or ideas do these
writers convey to their readers? Why? What do they suggest about Americans’ ideas
about liberty and equality?
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
Meanwhile, in Great Britain, critics of the American resistance movement were quick to
point out the hypocrisy of Jefferson and his fellow slaveholding Patriots:
Selection from Taxation No Tyranny (London, 1775), a pamphlet written by Samuel
Johnson in condemnation of the American resistance movement.
[H]ow is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?
Full text available: http://www.samueljohnson.com/tnt.html
Selection from the London literary quarterly, Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 46, pp.
403–404, published shortly after the Declaration of Independence.
We hold (they say) these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal. In what
are they created equal? Is it in size, understanding, figure, moral or civil
accomplishments, or situation of life? Every plough-man knows that they are not created
equal in any of these....That every man hath an unalienable right to liberty; and here the
words, as it happens, are not nonsense, but they are not true: slaves there are in America,
and where there are slaves, there liberty is alienated.
How did the institution of slavery hurt the reputation of the American resistance
movement? Is it possible for all men to be created equal, but some men to be slaves?
What is the relationship between the twin notions of liberty and slavery?
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
Thousands of African Americans fought in the
Revolutionary War, some on the side of the British,
some on the side of the Americans. The next two images
depict a black sailor and a black infantryman both of
whom sided with the United States.
A portrait of a Revolutionary War sailor, c. 1780.
Image available:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h81.html
Why would an African American fight for the freedom
of a nation that condoned slavery? Why might even
enslaved persons choose to fight for the United States?
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
This watercolor, painted by a French officer, depicts a black light infantryman of the first Rhode Island Regiment among the many
soldiers who fought at Yorktown. Image available: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h41.html
Tidbit: How can you tell that the black infantryman is from Rhode Island?
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
Before the Revolution, the African American poet, Phillis Wheatley, composed verses in honor of the British Empire. But after war
broke out, she wrote poetry in praise of General Washington. In the stanza below, the “chief” is Washington, and the “goddess” is
Columbia, or the spirit of America:
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev'ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.
Image available: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/tlc0395.jpg
Text of many of Wheatley’s poems: http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/wheatley.html
Text of Wheatley’s encomium to Washington, along with Washington’s reply:
http://www.jmu.edu/madison/center/main_pages/madison_archives/era/african/free/wheatley/poems/wash.htm
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
Though most white Americans continued to believe that blacks were inferior, Jefferson’s
language of equality and inalienable rights did inspire a nascent abolition movement,
among blacks and whites alike.
Selections from a petition presented by twelve slaves to the New Hampshire
Assembly, November 12, 1779. (The Assembly took no action on the petition, but in
coming years would abolish the slave trade):
To the Honorable, the Council and House of Representatives of said state, now sitting at
Exeter in and for said state:
The petition of the subscribers, natives of Africa, now forcibly detained in slavery in said
state most humbly sheweth. That the God of nature gave them life and freedom, upon the
terms of the most perfect equality with other men; That freedom is an inherent right of
the human species, not to be surrendered, but by consent, for the sake of social life; That
private or public tyranny and slavery are alike detestable to minds conscious of the equal
dignity of human nature; That in power and authority of individuals, derived solely from
a principle of coercion, against the will of individuals, and to dispose of their persons and
properties, consists the completest idea of private and political slavery . . .
[W]e fondly hope that the eye of pity and the heart of justice may commiserate our
situation, and put us upon the equality of freemen, and give us an opportunity of evincing
to the world our love of freedom by exerting ourselves in her cause, in opposing the
efforts of tyranny and oppression over the country in which we ourselves have been so
long injuriously enslaved.
Therefore, Your humble slaves most devoutly pray for the sake of injured liberty, for the
sake of justice, humanity and the rights of mankind, for the honor of religion and by all
that is dear, that your honors would graciously interpose in our behalf, and enact such
laws and regulations, as you in your wisdom think proper, whereby we may regain our
liberty and be ranked in the class of free agents, and that the name of slave may not more
be heard in a land gloriously contending for the sweets of freedom. And your humble
slaves as in duty bound will ever pray. Portsmouth Nov. 12, 1779.
Full text available: http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/standards/pyne-sesso.html
Who wrote this petition? To whom? For what purpose? How did these petitioners utilize
the language and ideas of the Declaration of Independence? (You may wish to consult
the Declaration for comparison.) What other rhetorical strategies did these petitioners use
to make their case?
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The American Revolution
Liberty and Slavery
Massachusetts was one of many states to abolish slavery in the late 1700s. While many
states provided for the abolition of slavery in their constitutions, in Massachusetts,
slavery was outlawed in a series of court cases known as the Quock Walker cases.
Selection from Chief Justice William Cushing’s instructions to the jury in one of the
Quock Walker cases:
As to the doctrine of slavery and the right of Christians to hold Africans in perpetual
servitude, and sell and treat them as we do our horses and cattle, that (it is true) has been
heretofore countenanced by the Province Laws formerly, but nowhere is it expressly
enacted or established. It has been a usage--a usage which took its origin from the
practice of some of the European nations, and the regulations of British government
respecting the then Colonies, for the benefit of trade and wealth. But whatever sentiments
have formerly prevailed in this particular or slid in upon us by the example of others, a
different idea has taken place with the people of America, more favorable to the natural
rights of mankind, and to that natural, innate desire of Liberty, with which Heaven
(without regard to color, complexion, or shape of noses--features) has inspired all the
human race. And upon this ground our Constitution of Government, by which the people
of this Commonwealth have solemnly bound themselves, sets out with declaring that all
men are born free and equal--and that every subject is entitled to liberty, and to have it
guarded by the laws, as well as life and property--and in short is totally repugnant to the
idea of being born slaves. This being the case, I think the idea of slavery is inconsistent
with our own conduct and Constitution; and there can be no such thing as perpetual
servitude of a rational creature, unless his liberty is forfeited by some criminal conduct or
given up by personal consent or contract . . . . Text available:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h38t.html
On what grounds did Chief Justice Cushing argue that slavery violated the Massachusetts
Constitution? How did Jefferson’s notions of liberty and equality inspire Cushing’s
argument? What other rhetoric does Cushing utilize to condemn slavery?
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