TOPIC 3.5 American Revolution

Fighting for (actual) Freedom During the Revolution

AP KC-3.1.II.E Despite considerable loyalist opposition, as well as Great Britain’s…advantages, the Patriot cause succeeded…

Objective: Students will gain a more nuanced view of the Revolution as they evaluate the legitimacy of the following claim: African Americans fighting for the British were the only people fighting for actual freedom during the American Revolution.

THis key concept in an Antiracist classroom:

“Your 4th of July is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license … your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery.” - Frederick Douglass, 1852

Dr. Robert Parkinson dismantled patriotic myths about the revolution in Common Cause: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution by shedding light on the “Patriot Propaganda” machine which worked tirelessly to stoke racial fears in white Americans. The plan worked brilliantly and brought moderate white colonists and loyalist colonies, the Carolinas and Georgia, into the fight against the British.

While the Patriot’s motivations for war were far more complicated than is presented in high school texts, the actual freedom the British army offered to hundreds of thousands of slaves was very tangible. The British offered freedom to any person who escaped enslavement during the war. Many of those men decided to fight for the British. Despite the narrative of most high school history textbooks, the vast majority of African Americans who fought in the war fought for the British army who helped grant freedom to over 100,000 people during the conflict.

Notes

I do this lesson at the end of the Revolution after covering APUSH topics 3.3-3.5. It will really give your class some perspective when discussing 3.6 the next day. For me, it’s been a rare September lesson that is still remembered in June! 

This lesson will force students to think critically about the common patriotic origin story. Later in the year, my students will read sections of “What to the Slave is the 4th of July” by Frederick Douglass. When we read it, students always bring up this lesson. To me, that proves this lesson’s worth.

I run this lesson as one of my ”level lessons.”