African Americans fought on both the British and Patriot sides. In 1775, Lord Dunsmore issued a proclamation offering freedom from slavery to any African Americans who fled to British lines. Many enslaved people took up this offer. For some, it was an opportunity to gain a better life, and they relocated to Nova Scotia or other parts of the British Empire after the war. However, for others, it continued to be a life of hard manual labor and high rates of disease and starvation.
While some New England states allowed African Americans to enlist in the Continental Army and militias, most other states prohibited their military service. From time to time, as manpower shortages occurred, this policy was relaxed somewhat.
Diaries and Memoirs
Boyrereau Brinch, enslaved black soldier in the American Army 1777-1783, excerpts, click.
Boston King, a free black soldier in the British Army, excerpts, click.
Other Primary Sources
Wheatley, Phillis, and Vincent Carretta. Complete Writings. Penguin Classics. New York: Penguin Books, 2001.
Basker, James G., and Nicole A. Seary, eds. Black Writers of the Founding Era, 1760-1800. New York, N.Y.: The Library of America, 2023.
For a review of Basker’s compendium of primary sources, see the Wall Street Journal’s book review.
Secondary Sources
Bellerjeau, Claire. Espionage and Slavery in the Revolution: The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2023.
Larson, Edward J. American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795. First edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023.https://allthingsliberty.com/2023/05/american-inheritance-liberty-and-slavery-in-the-birth-of-a-nation-1765-1795/
Cerami, C. Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot. Wiley, 2002. https://books.google.com/books?id=_evywAEACAAJ.
Dunbar, E.A. Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge. Simon & Schuster, 2018. https://books.google.com/books?id=wCbiyQEACAAJ.
Egerton, Douglas R. Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Frey, Sylvia R. Water from the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Geake, Robert A. and Spears, Lorin M. From Slaves to Soldiers of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment in the American Revolution. Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2016.
- British Journal for Military History Book Review by Gary Nash.
Gilbert, Alan. Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence. Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Holton, Woody. Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era: A Brief History with Documents. The Bedford Series in History and Culture. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.
In his new book, Liberty is Sweet, University of South Carolina Professor Woody Holton conveys a purportedly radical new American founding story highlighting the oft-neglected participation and contributions of Native Americans, Blacks, and women. Twelve- and a half years in the making, Holton highlights the activities of under-recognized rebels and loyalists during the Revolutionary Era. Holton’s five-hundred-and-seventy-page account is a whirlwind survey starting with the 1755 Battle of Monongahela in the Seven Years War (French and Indian War) and concluding forty years later with the Treaty of Greenville ending Euro-American and Indian hostilities in the Great Lakes region.
For a review of Holton’s book, click.
Horne, Gerald, and NYU Press. The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America, 2016.
Larson, Edward J. American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795. First edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023.
Book Review
Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom. Second. New York and London: W. W. Norton, 2003.
Nash, Gary B. The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1961.
Don’t be put off by the title. This classic book is well worth reading and is the best introduction.
Rees, John U. They Were Good Soldiers: African-Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783. (Solihull, England: Helion & Company, 2019)
Schama, Simon. Rough Crossings: The Slaves, the British, and the American Revolution. New York: Perennial, 2007.
Van Buskirk, Judith L. Standing in Their Own Light: African American Patriots in the American Revolution. Campaigns and Commanders, volume 59. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017.
Web sources
There are several emerging databases of slave names and runaway advertisements. J. L. Bell in his blog provides an excellent summary.
Museums
The National Museum of African American History and Culture has excellent exhibits on the role and contributions of African Americans during the Revolution. For a virtual tour, click here.
Researching the American Revolution 