The authors of the Declaration of Independence compared living under British rule to living
as an enslaved people, but the document did not recognize the rights of enslaved African
Americans. When the war began, slavery was legal in each of the thirteen colonies. Yet,
just as white soldiers signed up to fight for the Patriot cause, as many as 5,000 African
Americans did so as well. How did their service impact the issue of slavery in the American
colonies? In 1776, one in six colonists was African
American, and of those, 99% were slaves. Most lived in the Southern colonies, but New York
and New Jersey also had large slave populations. When the Revolution began, African Americans
reacted with hope and excitement. Many were equally ecstatic about the words of the Declaration
of Independence which declared that "all men are created equal."
As the war escalated, African Americans faced tough many tough choices about which side
to support. In Virginia, the royal governor offered freedom to any slave who deserted
their master and signed up to fight for the British Army. While this policy was temporarily
dropped by the British because it alienated many wealthy loyalists in the South, it became
a full, military-wide policy 1779. Sir Henry Clinton, the supreme British commander at
the time of the implementation, argued that the policy was justified because the Continental
Army was using African American soldiers. After initial hesitation due to Southern objections,
free African Americans were accepted into the Continental Army. By 1779, a full 15%
of Washington's army was African American. Rhode Island was the first state to field
an all African American unit in 1777. Massachusetts chose to mix black and white soldiers together.
Every colony, with the exception of South Carolina, enlisted free African Americans
to fight. However, not all black Americans who fought for the Patriot cause did so of
their own choosing. When the states began drafting militiamen into full military service,
many Southerners sent slaves in their place, offering them freedom if they served honorably.
In the final stages of the war, the British shifted their focus to the Southern colonies
where there were a substantial number of loyalists and slaves to provide manpower and support
to their armies. As the brutality of the war escalated, many British officers began viewing
runaway slaves as contraband (goods to be seized and confiscated). Sadly, thousands were
sold into an even worse form of slavery in the West Indies, making as much as $1,000
dollars a man for greedy British officers. In spite of the arguments and turmoil, the
service of African Americans changed the minds of many white Americans. By the end of the
war, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire had abolished slavery. Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island, and Connecticut voted in plans to gradually do away with the institution.
In Boston, Phillis Wheatley, a talented African American author whose writing was often supportive
of the Patriot cause, celebrated the end of the war and her freedom with a poem entitled
"Liberty and Peace."
"Auspicious Heaven shall fill with fav'ring Gales,
Where e'er Columbia spreads her swelling Sails: To every Realm shall Peace her Charms display,
And Heavenly Freedom spread her golden Ray."