African American Revolution Research Paper

When you learn about African American’s during the Revolutionary era you get to perceive the American Revolution from a new perspective. The American revolution, also known as the Great Rebellion took place from 1765 to 1783. The United States declared their independence in 1776 and African Americans had a big part to do with it. In 1619 when the first slaves came to America they contributed more to making this country great than the biggest plantation owners ever would. The American Revolution was an important time for the Patriots and the British but it was an even bigger time for African Americans.
For free African American’s in the north the revolution was huge because it drew more attention to them. Enslaved African American’s were promised

freedom in some states if they fought in the Revolutionary war but this was a gamble for them. They could have taken the risk of losing their life for a country who didn’t fight for them or they could stay enslaved and not fight for the Continental Army. Many slave owners who promised their slaves freedom after enlisting into the war were put back into slavery after the war concluded. Some slaves in the south were forced to go into the army as a substitute for their owner. Part of the reason for this was because some slave owners were afraid that if they enlisted their slaves would revolt and murder their families while they were away at war.
Weapons were not given to slaves before they went into the war because they didn’t want risk accidently allowing the slaves use them against their masters.

Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens wanted slaves to be able to earn their freedom by fighting in the war. Hamilton and Laurens believed that if the Continental Army did not give the slaves a chance to earn their freedom then Great Britain would take the opportunity. They were right. However, South Carolina Legislature didn’t approve this idea because slave import was at a standstill and the slave owners that ran the legislature did not like the idea of it. Then the British Governor made an announcement that all enslaved African Americans will be freed if they run away from their owners and fight for the British. Now Britain had slaves on their side too but they did not have free blacks. There was still no reason for free black people to join the British Army if they were in the North so they lost that demographic. Unlike a lot of the slave owners in The United States the British Governor went through with his promise and relocated those slaves to Britain, Nova Scotia and Jamaica. Most of them being sent to Jamaica and Nova Scotia because even though Britain freed them they still didn’t want them in their own country.
Prince Whipple came from a wealthy family in Africa and an Englishman who was supposed to take him to The United States to get an education but the Englishman was a racist who sold him into slavery instead. White people had no concern for any person of color, royalty or not, during the revolutionary era. They didn’t care how much money his family had or what they owned. Prince Whipple isn’t even his real name but it’s the only name people know him by because that was his slave owner, William Whipple’s surname. The prince was taken from Africa never to return and died at the young age of

46.
Thoughts of ending slavery began floating around during the Revolutionary War. Many of the founding fathers of the United States of America owned slaves but they didn’t necessarily think it was right. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves his whole life but and he knew it was immoral. At one point, he blamed slavery on the British because he knew it was something to be ashamed of. Although he wasn’t wrong, slavery came about long before the United States of America was even an idea, The United States didn’t need to start off on that foot. We could’ve been a great country that also started great, but unfortunately, we will never be able to claim that. There were founding fathers who didn’t own slaves however they weren’t the majority. William Whipple was another one of the founding fathers who acknowledged the wrong in the fact that they were fighting for their freedom but keeping slaves. These bad perceptions of slavery didn’t really matter because the slave owners completely forgot about all of it when the revolution concluded.
Patrick Henry was another founding father who knew slavery was wrong. He was a Virginia politician lawyer and governor. The appointed leaders from Britain that were supposed to govern the colonies were not people the colonist wanted to lead them and Henry was advocating for them. He gave a very influential speech that we still here today called “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death.” Even though he was a Christian who had realized the hypocrisy of withholding someone’s freedom he still owned slaves and wanted the states to be able to decide on their own whether to keep slavery or not. The idea of having a big federal government was scarier to him than the thought of building a country from people who were forced into manual labor with no pay forced to live in horrible conditions.
Being an African American man you basically had three choices during the war. Sometimes you were able make the decision for yourself but other times your slave owner would make it for you. You could not fight in the Great Rebellion at all and remain a slave on the plantation with no promise of ever being freed for any reason, you could go to war for the continental army and possibly be set free after you’ve served, or you could run away and fight for the British army who promised to free you after service and send you to Jamaica, Nova Scotia or Britain. It wasn’t unusual to have slaves fighting other slaves in a battle. Slaves fighting for the continental army seem like they have the better end of the stick because they get to be free in the country they fought for but in most cases, they were never truly freed. It was just another case of African Americans fighting for a country that doesn’t fight for them.
As an American I have always looked at the revolutionary war as a win for all Americans and my country but as a person of half African American decent I can see that this was not a win for me. The revolutionary war ended in 1783 and yet slavery wasn’t completely abolished until 1865. That’s almost a hundred years of slavery after America gained its independence. That’s a shame being that the first anti-slavery efforts began during the revolutionary war. A lot of the time we ignore the African Americans perspective of the war because at the end of the day the United States gained their independence but that doesn’t mean we did it the right way. The Great Rebellion was a win but there were still plenty of battles to be fought in the United States of America.
Before the war started a lot of free African Americans in the north did not like the British because of the Boston Massacre but this didn’t mean anything significantly beneficial to the continental army. Some African Americans in the North were already in private militias before the war began. Many of them joined the continental army because they were already free. The idea of African Americans gaining more respect from White Americans is what gave most of them the desire to fight for the Patriots in the war. The north part of the continental army was one fifth African American. Georgia and South Carolina did not want to put their slaves into the war because they did not want them to be freed at any cost.
After the war ended things went back to just as they were before. Slaves went back to be slaves and owners went back to being owners. Ignoring the fact that they just won their freedom but are denying it to others. A few years after the war ended the continental congress still created a new policy to keep African Americans out of the Army. No matter what African Americans did to prove themselves during the revolutionary era nothing would change for almost a hundred years. Life was a never-ending battle but perseverance was key.