Introduction

The American revolutionaries were the simple and plain traitors. Leaders of patriot cause repeatedly argued that British policies would make colonists slaves of British. The colonists' emphasis on danger of mass enslavement derived in part from highly visible example of racial slavery. Both British and colonists believed that slaves could serve an important role during Revolution. In November 1775, Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, promised freedom to all slaves belonging to rebels who would join "His Majesty's Troops." Some 800 slaves joined British forces.

Discussion

Meanwhile an American diplomat, Silas Deane, hatched the secret plan to incite slave insurrections in Jamaica. Two South Carolinians, John Laurens and his father Henry, persuaded Congress to unanimously approve the plan to recruit an army of 3,000 slave troops to stop the British invasion of South Carolina and Georgia. The federal government would compensate slaves' owners and each black would, at end of war, be emancipated and receive $50. The South Carolina legislature rejected plan, scuttling proposal.

As the result of Revolution, the surprising number of slaves were manumitted, while thousands of others freed themselves by running away. Georgia lost about the third of its slaves and South Carolina lost 25,000. Yet despite these losses, slavery quickly recovered in South. By 1810, South Carolina and Georgia had three times as numerous slaves as in 1770.

The transformation had at odds penalties for slavery. In South, slavery became more entrenched. In North, every state freed slaves as the result of court decisions or enactment of gradual emancipation schemes. Yet even in North, there was strong resistance to emancipation and freeing of slaves was accompanied by emergence of the virulent form of racial prejudice. John Laurens's lonely crusade against slavery engaged components of romantic idealism and individual ambition. To the degree, he simply extended to the logical conclusion ...