Students will describe the roles that slavery, Native nations and African Americans played in the Revolutionary War. Maps to Key Concepts 2, 3, 5, 9 & 10
What else should my students know?
5.A The Declaration of Independence addressed slavery in several ways, including author Thomas Jefferson’s indictment of the crown’s initiation of the slave trade (deleted from the final draft) and the charge that the king had “excited domestic insurrection among us.” The document also describes Indigenous people as “merciless Indian Savages.”
5.B Free and enslaved people used the language of the Revolution to argue for their own rights. African American and Indigenous participation in the war was largely in pursuit of freedom rather than loyalty to a particular side.
5.C Many Native nations fought in the Revolutionary War on both sides, while others tried to remain neutral. Disagreements about the Revolution split the Iroquois Confederacy. Most nations allied with the British because they hoped to end further colonial encroachment. After the war, even nations that had sided with the colonists lost land and liberties.
5.D Black soldiers participated in the early Revolutionary battles of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill, but General George Washington opposed including them in the Continental Army. After the British offered freedom to black men, Washington relented. He raised a black regiment to reinforce the Continental Army, and thousands of black men fought in the Continental Army or at sea.
5.E The British actively recruited free and enslaved black men. Though the British promised freedom in return for service, black Loyalists faced an uncertain future as the British retreated at the end of the war. Many fled and others were captured and re-enslaved.
How can I teach this?
- Prince Hall, a free man who had been enslaved in Boston, is believed to have fought at Bunker Hill. He claimed Indigenous and African ancestry. An active Freemason, he also authored “Slaves’ Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Legislature, 1777”
- For colonists using the metaphor of slavery, see the 1764 tract by James Otis, “The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved.”
- Several documents demonstrate the ways that enslaved colonists argued for their rights, including:
- Though painted after the fact, John Trumbull’s The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775 (ca. 1815) and Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware (ca. 1851) both include images of African American soldiers.
- “A Proclamation of the Earl of Dunmore” (the Royal Governor of Virginia) offered freedom to any men enslaved by Patriots who agreed to risk their lives by fighting for the Loyalists.
- The Black Brigade of Loyalists, the Ethiopian Regiment and the Black Pioneers were famous groups of Loyalist soldiers. Boston King and Colonel Tye were two famous black Loyalists.
- The Book of Negroes documents the service of 3,000 black Loyalist soldiers evacuated by the British to Nova Scotia.
- Among the primary documents available through the website of the PBS series Africans in America is a British pass issued to a black Loyalist in 1783 ensuring transport to Nova Scotia.
- The website of Colonial Williamsburg details the story of Harry Washington, a laborer enslaved by George Washington who fought for the British and was evacuated from New York City over Washington’s protests.
- The essay “African Americans in the Revolutionary War” by Michael Lee Lanning offers an overview of African American service on both sides of the war. K–12 educators can create a school account for free access through the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
- The essay “American Indians and the American Revolution” by Colin Calloway offers an overview of Indigenous participation on both sides of the war.
- Episode five of Learning for Justice’s Teaching Hard History: American Slavery podcast shows how teachers can use process drama in the classroom with an example drawn from decisions enslaved people had to make during the Revolutionary War.
