We’ve all heard about the slaves who fought against the British during our War for Independence. But since victors write the history books, we haven’t heard much about the thousands of slaves who fought for the British. Slaves were well aware that slavery had been outlawed in England; if they could just reach the British Isles, they would be free at last.
The British offered freedom to any slaves who came to their side to fight against the American revolutionaries. An estimated 100,000 slaves (one out of five) fled the US by the end of the revolution. One was George Washington’s slave, Harry Washington, who ended up dying outside of Freetown, Sierra Leone. When the defeated British departed after losing at Yorktown, 15,000 former slaves went with them. Two new books, one by an English historian and one by an Australian historian, tell this forgotten piece of America’s story and what happened to these slaves, who were dispersed to England, Africa, Australia, and elsewhere.
So here’s what’s interesting. We celebrate our forefathers for fighting for freedom. They were not exactly “unfree,” but did have grievances about taxes and other issues. Meanwhile, here were these thousands of slaves who were, absolutely, fighting for freedom. And when the British lost, thousands were returned to a life of slavery (while their masters could celebrate the lower cost of tea).
But there are other interesting twists. Why were they slaves to begin with? Because of the British slave trade. While slavery was illegal in England itself, they hadn’t outlawed the slave trade on the high seas. The US, in 1808, outlawed the overseas slave trade, but still permitted slavery on US soil. Ah, what a web. Thomas Jefferson originally wrote about this in an early draft of the Declaration of Independence, criticizing King George for violating the “sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery.” In addition, he said King George had vetoed efforts in the colonies to abolish or restrain slavery, and was now offering these slaves the “liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded [imposed] them.”
Alas, some signers felt that paragraph was too harsh, some felt it was too soft, and so they struck it from the final document which landed on King George’s desk.
Ironically, at war’s end, five of Jefferson’s own slaves were recaptured as they tried to flee behind British lines. Now who was imposing slavery on whom? Don’t ya just love this stuff?
