![]() ![]() The difficulties inherent in making this journey no doubt dissuaded many from attempting it. After 1776, enslaved people of color in Massachusetts who wished to take advantage of British promises of freedom would have been forced to make their way to British forces stationed in either Newport or to New York City. Given that the British Army was unable to maintain a dominant presence in the state after the evacuation of Boston, the final total may amount to fewer than one hundred. ![]() 4īut how did these policies affect enslaved people in Massachusetts? While some Massachusetts slaves certainly did avail themselves of the freedoms offered by the British Army, it is virtually impossible to arrive at an accurate estimate of how many. Given the combined promises of freedom offered by Somerset’s case and the army’s proclamations, slaves in the southern colonies may have preferred the risk of running away and an uncertain future with British military forces rather than remain in the great slave centers of Virginia and South Carolina. The black loyalist exodus that began in 1775 with Lord Dunmore’s proclamation reached its peak in South Carolina during the British campaigns between 17 and in Virginia during the fighting there between 17. Unsurprisingly, slave runaways were most numerous in areas under direct control of the British Army or in close proximity to British military forces. The British policy of offering freedom to enslaved people owned by rebellious colonists ensured that British military camps functioned as a magnet for slave refugees. These various proclamations and slave desertions eventually culminated in Sir Henry Clinton’s Philipsburg Proclamation, issued on June 30, 1779, which offered freedom to all slaves owned by rebelling Americans. The following year, Sir William Howe extended Dunmore’s promise to those slaves living in the vicinity of British Army posts in New York and New Jersey. The first of these was Dummore’s Proclamation, issued on November 14, 1775, in which the last royal governor of Virginia offered freedom to “all indented Servants, Negroes, or others… that are able and willing to bear Arms.” More than 1,500 slaves fled to the Dunmore’s sanctuary, where sadly more than two-thirds of them succumbed to disease. Second, from the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the British Army established itself as a bastion of freedom for enslaved peoples with a series of proclamations promising liberty to runaways. Many individuals in America interpreted the case as an indictment of slavery and evidence from runaway advertisements indicates that slaves themselves understood the case as having abolished slavery in Great Britain. Somerset’s case dealt a severe blow to the institution of slavery within the kingdom of Great Britain and the trial and subsequent ruling were widely reported in American newspapers. Although Lord Mansfield did not explicitly outlaw the practice of slavery, he found chattel slavery incompatible with English common law when issuing his ruling. The presiding judge, Lord Mansfield, ruled in Somerset’s favor and barred Stuart’s attempt to sell Somerset to West Indian planters. In 1772, James Somerset, an enslaved man owned by customs official Charles Stuart, brought suit against his owner in a London court in order to obtain his freedom. First, many slaves believed slavery had already been abolished in Great Britain. 1Įnslaved men of color supported the British cause for a number of reasons. The experiences of the “Black Loyalists” represent the largest exodus of North America slaves before the Civil War. Historians estimate that more than 20,000 runaway slaves joined the British during the American Revolution. Scholar in the Park, Summer 2014, Friends of Minute Man National Park candidate, Department of History, Brandeis University. Did any men of color from Massachusetts fight with the British? What would enslaved men hope to gain by fighting for the British, a distant imperial power conceived by the revolutionaries to be enslaving all colonists?
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