Detail from "The Death of Major Pierson," 1782-84, oil painting by John Singleton Copley depicting a black soldier fighting for the British during the American Revolution. Black soldiers in Dunmore's Royal Ethiopian Regiment had "Liberty to Slaves" embroidered on their uniforms.-Tate Gallery.
During the American Revolution, the black populace of the thirteen colonies found themselves entangled in the conflict, both physically and ideologically. Threats by the British of "arming slaves" against its rebellious colonies instilled fear in places like Virginia and helped unify varied classes of white colonists. These fears and threats became reality when in 1775 the Royal Governor of Virginia Lord Dunmore, under seige by an encroaching colonial milita, issued in desperation his famous proclamation granting freedom to those slaves who would rally to his side.
"...I do require every Person capable of bearing Arms, to resort to His MAJESTY'S STANDARD, or be looked upon as Traitors to His MAJESTY'S Crown and Government, and thereby become liable to the Penalty the Law inflicts upon such Offenses; such as forfeiture of Life, confiscation of Lands, &. &. And I do hereby further declare all indented 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 Crown and Dignity."--Lord Dunmore's Proclamation, Nov 7 1775.
Many slaves, weighing their options between their masters and their masters' enemies, chose the latter. In truth, Dunmore's hand had in a way been pushed by the slaves themselves. Earlier, when first making the threats he thought would cow the colonists, Dunmore was surprised when several slaves appeared at the Governor's mansion, eager and ready to take up arms. Alarmed that he had overplayed his hand, Dunmore quickly sent the slaves away. However the news of Dunmore's intent spread rapidly among the slave populace, and when the actual call was made, hundreds came to his aid, securing his escape at one point and routing the colonial militia. As tales of Dunmore's proclamation spread, the institution of slavery in the colonies was thrown into tumult.
During the war an estimated 100,000 slaves took advantage of the disruption to run away, many of them heading directly to join British forces. Others fled to Canada, Florida, or Native American lands. Thomas Jefferson estimated that Virginia lost 30,000 slaves in just one year. Fugitive slave Boston King was one of these individuals, risking punishment or death to flee from bondage. He endured numerous harrowing adventures during his escape, finally making it to the British forces stationed in New York where most black runaways were gathered.
Some of these runaways joined the British armies and navies outright, becoming fighters who wreaked havoc on American forces. One of the most well known of these was Colonel Tye, an escaped slave who joined the British as a guerilla fighter. In 1778 at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey Tye captured a captain of the American militia, earning a reputation and name among the British. Comprised of enslaved blacks and lower class whites loyalists, Colonel Tye's rag-tag band became known as "cow-boys". They carried out daring militia attacks throughout New Jersey, often attacking military outposts, former masters' plantations and other Americans in rebellion against the British.
During the brutal winter of 1779, Tye was among an elite group of twenty-four black Loyalists, known as the Black Brigade, who joined with the Queen's Rangers: a British guerrilla unit charged with protecting British held New York City and carrying out raids for supplies. By 1780 Tye and his band were feared by white members of the American forces: capturing and killing Continental militia members, destroying their military equipment and more.
As news of Colonel Tye's feats reached an excited slave community, the American governor of NJ in a desperate move invoked martial law - hoping to stop many slaves from going over to the British. Tye's end came in the Autumn of 1780 after a minor wound in a skirmish turned fatal. But his military exploits would become the stuff of legends.
And not only enslaved blacks joined the British forces. Some free blacks, believing the British would guarantee a better freedom for their black brethren in bondage, urged blacks to join the redcoats as well. In 1775, Jeremiah Thomas, a pilot, fisherman, "and Free Negroe of considerable property", was hanged and burned in Charleston in an insurrection plot in which he enticed free and enslaved blacks to join the Royal British navy.
Treatment by the British however was not often better than that of the Continental army. Many blacks found themselves placed in slave-like conditions in disease-ridden British camps, to perform menial tasks and hard labor to support white troops. Others were forcibly returned to their Loyalist owners. And some were even captured and traded as prizes of war by British soldiers and officers.
With the end of the Revolutionary War and the defeat of the British, many blacks who had allied with the British found themselves in a dangerous predicament. Fearing punishment and death if captured by American militiamen, many fled to New York and sought refuge with the British forces gathered there. But part of the treaty signed with the colonies demanded the return of property--especially slaves, whose owners came looking for them. Heart-wrenching stories tell of slaves jumping in the water after departing British ships, whose sailors hacked away at their grabbing arms with cutlasses. Some British partially kept their reward. General Guy Carelton, calling the British agreement to return slaves a "breach of faith," drew up a list of some 3,000 blacks--the Book of Negroes--that would be rescued. Many were resettled in Nova Scotia--where they eventually faced poverty, starvation and neglect, some leaving for the African colony of Sierra Leone. Some of the unfortunate blacks that escaped to Savannah and Charleston were allowed to evacuate with their British allies as well, who promptly resold many of them back into bondage in the Caribbean. Most of however were returned as "stolen property" to their colonial American owners.
Read more:
Sylvia Frey, Water from the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age, 199
Woody Holton, Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia, 1999
Memoirs of Boston King
http://antislavery.eserver.org/narratives/boston_king/
PBS Africans in America on Black "Loyalists"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2narr4.html
Black Loyalist Heritage Society
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