Pre-American Revolutionary Period
During the eighteenth century, many Americans enjoyed a lot of liberty than other people in the world. They went on to pay low taxes and boycotted imports. In the American Revolution, slaves were not affected in any way by the tea taxes or the stamp duties. The black population was the main race used in the revolution, uprising and slavery. They were also used in mobilization of revolutionary groups.
In particular, the duties and taxes imposed, did not affect the black population and the slaves, but Gary Nash one of the successful historians states that “Even as the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s created an intense interest in the seventeenth- and eighteenth century roots of America’s race problem, many historians continued to deny that the founding fathers could have done anything about slavery.”pg.5
Many historians have stated abolition of slavery in different southern states would lead to break down of political parties. In Gary Nash words, “In offering a political explanation for the failure of the revolutionary generation to abolish slavery, historians of our era have usually cited the fragility of the new nation.”pg.6. The leaders’ certainty to attempt stopping force abolition on the southern states would destroy the politically aware union that was united during the war and after.
When social upheaval was experienced in the towns and cities where the blacks lived, the black people got a chance to flee. According to estimates done by Thomason Jefferson, thirty thousand slaves had run away when the British invaded Virginia in 1781. Some of the slaves united with the black regiment of Virginia’s governor Lord Dunmore’s, where the governor promised them freedom in exchange of the slaves disobeying their masters. Some of the slaves and blacks were recruited to join guerilla bands fighting the patriots. In search of freedom, many of these blacks and slaves succumbed to diseases, malnutrition and battle wounds. Towards the end of the American Revolution, many black loyalists were exiled to Jamaica and others to Florida. The black community in America came from people who were slaves during the revolution.
They were either liberated by state law; others rebelled or ran away and managed to stay in America. The population of the African American increased during the nineteenth century. While this population was completely of diverse racial origin before the war started, many blacks can now express the role done by free men. In addition, the black population reminds the white population that the color of a skin cannot dictate abilities or freedom of a person.
During the American Revolution, slave rebellions supported the theory of Governor Robert that any emergency dividing the white people could enable the slaves to rebel. A white man in New York heard slaves collaborating on how to get gun powders for an insurgence plot. In Georgia, slaves formed a revolution in December 1774 killing four whites. They were later captured and burned to death. Few slaves with little education were able to create a written challenge to the bondage hypocrisy between wars for freedom. In Massachusetts, a group of black people petitioned the state assembly and Boston’s governor in 1773 conveying gratitude for the slave abolishment attempts saying that the people of Boston seem like they have being actuated by justice principles. In 1775, the African American population from Bristol and Worcester appealed the Committees of Correspondence for support in getting their freedom.
In their response, the Worcester County Convention passed a resolution stating that any human race enslavement had being abolished. Some white and black abolitionists kept wider appeals that addressed the general public and state assemblies. In Virginia, the black population signed up with the British army so that they could attain freedom. More than five thousand black people were serving in colonial militias and involved themselves in revolution battles. Crispus Attucks, who was a black man, was among the five colonists who were shot dead in the Boston massacre. In Bunker Hill, black soldiers were among the people who fought at the first main revolutionary clash. Among them was Salem Poor from Massachusetts.
He was a slave and acquired his freedom in 1769 through a lot of struggle. Other fourteen officers in the same regime like Salem Poor petitioned the Massachusetts general court to mention poor as one of the brave soldiers who had behaviors of an experienced officer. Even thought there were more than four thousand colonist who fought at Bunker Hill, Poor was the only one whose existing records indicated that he was singled out for his extraordinary services. When the war came to an end, one white person wrote a biography remembering his terror when the Bunker Hill hostilities started. He saw bodies of soldiers lying on the Boston Common.
One of the things that heartened him was a Negro’s body wounded and blood running down the body. The Negro was saying that the he was not minding of the wounds he had. In 1775, Continental Generals informed the congress there were Negroes in various regiments in Massachusetts. Slave commanders like George Washington showed fears and at the determination of representatives who were from South Carolina an area with a lot of slaves, the black population was barred from joining the Continental Army. When times became tougher for the colonists after fighting for a year, the Continental Congress reevaluated. Washington agreed by allowing some northern states to plead with black people.
In addition, in 1776, Washington re-authorized mobilization for blacks who had experience in military. In 1777, as the situation of Continental Army became worried due to disappearances from nasty encampments from the winter, mobilization was extended for all the black population. When the British Military shifted its operations in the black territory in the late 1778, upper south states unwillingly accepted the black population. Gordon Wood (118) stated that “the Virginia army and navy were full of African Americans and slaves served as alternatives for their masters in North Carolina and Delaware.” Authorization of slave mobilization was done in Maryland and the black populations were also recruited.
In conclusion, the white population in the lower south states was firmly in opposing the mobilization of the black population who were working in the rice swamps. Even when the congress offered 1,000 dollars for every slave they mobilized in 1779, south Carolina and Georgia went on to refuse. They tried to reimburse more than twice the 400 dollars they presented to slave owners in Rhode Island. Even when a large population of the blacks remained to be poor, the success stories were termed to be powerful symbols for the whole black community. The white population questioning racial equality and black populations’ ability saw the success. When the revolution took place, South Carolina and Georgia hardened their dependence on slave labor and the strong resistance to any kind of mobilization. When hundreds of mulattoes fled the revolution in Haiti for America, the black population did not populate the lower south until 1790s.
Bibliography
Gary, Nash, Race and Revolution (Madison, WI: Madison House, 1990), 1-10.
Virginia Declaration of Rights, 12 June 1776, http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/vabor.htm, accessed 26 October 2012.
Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), 118.
