The American Revolution presents historians and other scholars with a big paradoxical debate. On one hand, the American Revolution is credited with turning the United States into the land of the free. On the other hand, when the American Revolution was underway over twenty percent of the country’s population was enslaved. The American Revolution could not have been wholesome without the involvement of both free and enslaved African Americans. The African Americans’ scope of involvement in the Revolution differed across the thirteen British colonies. Both the slave masters and the British colonizers sought the help of the African Americans during the American Revolution. Nevertheless, the African Americans who took part in the American Revolution would have a different opinion about its ‘revolutionary’ nature. This paper explores how revolutionary the American Revolution was from the perspective of the free and enslaved African Americans.
First, it is important to note that the American Revolution did not change the quality of life for enslaved African Americans. Most of the enslaved African Americans found themselves working in rice or tobacco plantations when the American Revolution began. The African Americans who were working in the white-owned plantations had little to no interaction with their masters. In addition, the slaves had a way of life that was parallel to that of their masters. The African Americans’ prospects of gaining freedom came at a high price. The freedom that was being sought by patriots through the American Revolution was a strange prospect for an African American slave. One of the foremost African American abolitionists Pastor Absalom Jones recounted how he had witnessed freed slaves being pursued for re-enslavement. The attainment of freedom for slaves was a difficult undertaking. In his petition to the Congress, Pastor Absalom notes that most African Americans had to put huge efforts into the attainment of their freedom only for them to be recaptured by white people who re-sold them into slavery. Consequently, the reasons and arguments behind the American Revolution could not appeal to an average enslaved African American.
The revolutionary nature of the American Revolution did not resonate with both the free and enslaved African Americans who served in the Army. The enlistment of African Americans in the Army during the American Revolution only served the interests of the patriots and the British Colony. Nevertheless, the patriots were very anxious about the possibility of slaves turning against their masters. Consequently, the British colony exploited the slave-owners’ fear by offering freedom to all African Americans who fought for the British side. The Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation offered all African Americans the right to bear arms with the aim of enlisting them to fight against the patriots. Although Dunmore’s Proclamation gave both free and enslaved African American more rights, it also made it criminal for them to oppose this decree. Subsequently, any African American who did not fight for the interests of ‘His Majesty’s Crown’ could be charged for treason. The patriots’ decision to enlist African Americans in the Army was hypocritical because when the intensity of conflicts subsided the enslaved Africans’ rights would be revoked. On the other hand, the British had no regard for the rights and the wellbeing of any African Americans who were not fighting for their course. Therefore, the African Americans would not buy into the revolutionary nature of the American Revolution because they were only used as pawns in the conflict. Furthermore, the African Americans’ involvement in the American Revolution did not improve their plight for abolition or attainment of civil rights.