The American Revolution did not abolish slavery, although in some states the innate contradiction between the institution and the Declaration of Independence were apparent. During the Revolution, many African Americans fought for freedom in their own way-some on the British side, some on the American. Slavery was gradually abolished, but mostly where it was economically unimportant. At this stage of its history, slavery was not seen as morally defensible; even southerners questioned the morality of slavery, and no one defended it as a "positive good." That would come later.
Slavery was an important issue during the Revolutionary War. Governor Dinsmore of Virginia had promised freedom to all slaves who would fight for the British against the American rebels. As a result, the British army emancipated many slaves-about twenty thousand escaped to the British, including some of Jefferson's. When the war ended, many of them returned with the British army to England, where they became free men.
During the revolutionary period, provisions for emancipation were incorporated into most northern state constitutions. Even outsiders were struck by the contrast between American cries for freedom and its practice of slavery. Samuel Johnson had pointedly asked, "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of Negroes?" Some Americans were equally outraged by the practice. As Abigail Adams put it, "It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have."
Meanwhile, slavery was dying elsewhere in the world. In England a slave owner could not exercise his property rights over a slave. In America, excuses were found not to use blacks to fight for independence. And yet, in the words of one historian, "For all its broken promises, the Revolution contained the roots of the black liberation movement." For blacks had been at Lexington, had crossed the Delaware with Washington, and many had been recognized at Bunker Hill and during the surrender of the British at Saratoga. In fact, British soldiers mocked the American army because it contained so many blacks. All the same, in the South the sight of a black man with a gun evoked fear. The time for full emancipation was not yet at hand.
World History
