History of the United States I / Unit 6 USH1 0779 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Enslaved People on Both Sides
The idea
There were five hundred thousand enslaved people in the colonies. Twenty thousand joined the British, and between ten and twenty thousand gained freedom because of the Revolution. Boyrereau Brinch, captured in Africa at sixteen, fought for the Patriots and was honourably discharged and emancipated, publishing his account in eighteen ten. People enslaved by Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry escaped to the British, and at Yorktown thousands of Black troops fought with Cornwallis.
In practice
Washington, who enslaved more than two hundred people, initially refusing enslaved military service, allowing free Black men to serve, and freeing his enslaved people in his will.
Where people slip
The common account has enslaved people siding with the Patriots. Four times as many joined the British, because Dunmore and his successors offered freedom and the Continental Congress mostly did not. Revolutionary leaders did not grant freedom as a matter of course to those who fought, unlike the British. Which side a person took depended on which side was offering what they wanted.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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