Contextualizing TOPIC 2.7: African Americans and the Revolution; race, slavery, and U.S. law

Perspectives on Fighting for (actual) Freedom During the Revolution

LO 2.7.A Explain how American law affected the lives and citizenship rights of enslaved and free African Americans between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

Objective: Students will analyze the perspectives of revolutionary era primary sources by examining the historical context, identity, and experiences that shaped their viewpoints in order to analyze the impact of the American Revolution on African Americans and the events impact on the entrenchment of racial mythology in American society and law.

"The American Revolution was a 'slave revolt in reverse,' where enslaved people sought freedom by siding with the British, while the colonists fought to maintain their system of slavery." - Dr. Maya Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles, 2011

“I decided… (to escape and join) the English. They received me readily, and I began to feel the happiness of liberty.” - Boston King, formerly enslaved man, a British veteran of the Revolution

“I fought in Washington's army…But, instead of freedom, I was, soon after my return, sold…separated from my wife and children, taken to New Orleans…this is the payment of my wages, for all of my fighting and suffering in the Revolutionary War for the liberty of this ungrateful, illiberal country, to me and to my race.” - James Roberts, a Black veteran of the Revolution

Notes

The American Revolution does not have its own section in the AP African American Studies curriculum, yet it had a profound impact on the lives of Black Americans and provides vital context for understanding the evolution of racial mythology in American law and society. It was the most significant era of Black liberation in the English-speaking Americas before the eventual abolition of slavery. In no other period before the Civil War did so many entire families escape to freedom together. Tens of thousands of Black Americans seized the war as an opportunity to escape bondage. While the era was filled with patriotic rhetoric about freedom, Black Americans who fought for the British were fighting for actual freedom.

In this lesson, students will compare the Founding Fathers' description of “rhetorical slavery,” from which they claimed to be suffering, with first-hand accounts of the horrors of actual slavery that they were defending and enforcing.

Students will analyze the perspectives of sources from Boston King, Phillis Wheatley, John Dickinson, and Solomon Northup, alongside those of historians such as Ibram X. Kendi, Barbara Jones, and Maya Jasanoff.

Additionally, I always print 5–10 copies of the narrative of James Roberts, who fought alongside George Washington during the Revolution (though his account offers a critical perspective on Washington). At the end of the lesson, I highlight that we haven’t examined sources from Black Americans who fought on the Patriot side and recommend that students take home the excerpt from James Roberts. I always have a few students who take me up on the offer. The excerpt is attached above.

This lesson challenges students to think critically about the common patriotic origin story. Later in the semester, we will read What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? by Frederick Douglass, a text that students consistently connect back to this lesson. This is one that sticks with them!

Level Lesson

This is a fun (and busy) way to break down a complex historical argument. It ensures that each student follows along at every step of the activity. It is a great way to implement the AP best practice of being the “Guide on the Side” rather than the “Sage on the Stage. Students work in groups of 2 to 4. They only see one document at a time and can’t advance to the next “level” until after they have passed a quick verbal quiz. My students really like the immediate feedback, and it significantly enhances discussion afterward because I know that everyone in the class is following along at each stage of the assignment.

(Download the full description of a “Level Lesson” above).

PRINT INSTRUCTIONS for the “Level Lesson” Handout

Print pg 1-2, back to back for every student and give this to them at the start of the lesson. The source for “level #1” is included in this part of the handout, along with the questions for each of the other levels.

Pages pg 3-6: Print these one-sided and keep them with you at your station and only hand them out one at a time after they have passed the next “level.” I make enough copies for 50-60% of the class.

**The reality of the British policy towards Enslaved People in 1776

At the end of the lesson, I always point out a few of the following details about British policy. Through the eyes of Boston King and Colonel Tye in 1775, British policy during the war was indeed something to celebrate, however:

The Dunmore Proclamation was not a moral decision, but a strategic one. For the next two decades after the Dunmore Proclamation, over 1 million more Africans were trafficked to British colonies.

Despite the promise of freedom to enslaved people during the war, the British record was mixed:

• Abandonment and Betrayal: After the war, thousands of formerly enslaved people who had fought or worked for the British were left behind. When rations and supplies ran low at Yorktown, formerly enslaved British allies and soldiers were kicked out of the British encampment and forced to march back to their Patriot enslavers. In 1783, when British forces evacuated New York, an estimated 3,000 formerly enslaved individuals were taken to Nova Scotia, while others were relocated to the Caribbean or Sierra Leone. However, many who sought refuge were recaptured, re-enslaved, or abandoned in very poor conditions.

• Continued Slavery and Human Trafficking: The British Empire remained deeply entrenched in the transatlantic slave trade during this period. Chattel slavery remained legal throughout the empire until 1833, and British colonies in the Caribbean continued to rely on enslaved labor for their sugar labor camps.