As we transition from celebrating Juneteenth, an observance recognizing the emancipation of enslaved Africans in the United States in the 1860s, let’s not forget that it was not the first use of Emancipation as a strategy on this continent. The American Revolution triggered the first mass emancipation of enslaved people in North America, driven by military strategy, British disruption, and rising abolitionist sentiment in the North. However, it also deeply entrenched slavery in the American South, creating a fractured nation half-slave and half-free.

British military strategies were the catalyst for the Revolution. The fear of Britain prevailing and emancipating all slaves drove the Southern states to support the revolution and fight hard for independence, so they could continue to use slave labor. The British Army offered the first major path to freedom in an attempt to disrupt the American economy. Dunmore’s Proclamation in 1775 by John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, Virginia’s royal governor, promised freedom to able-bodied enslaved men who fought for the British crown. The Philipsburg Proclamation in 1779 by British General Henry Clinton expanded this, offering freedom to any enslaved person escaping a rebel master, including women and children. So, between 20,000 and 100,000 enslaved people escaped to British lines, making it the largest civilian uprising and emancipation event in North America prior to the Civil War.

That brings us to US Black Patriots and “Freedom Suits.” There was strong revolutionary rhetoric about “liberty,” which inspired thousands of Black Americans to fight for the Patriot cause or sue for their freedom. Their military service included roughly 5,000 to 8,000 Black soldiers who fought in the Continental Army and local militias, often winning freedom in exchange for service. “Freedom Suits” were when enslaved individuals used new state constitutions to sue for liberty. Freedom Suits by Mum Bett (Elizabeth Freeman) and Quock Walker in Massachusetts, effectively ended slavery in that state when the courts declared that slavery was incompatible with the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution.

The Northern Abolition Movement took hold, and the Revolution accelerated the gradual end of slavery in the Northern United States. First, Vermont banned slavery in its 1777 constitution, followed by Massachusetts and New Hampshire through judicial rulings in the 1780s. Followed by Gradual Emancipation: Pennsylvania (1780), Rhode Island (1784), Connecticut (1784), New York (1799), and New Jersey (1804) passed laws that freed the children of enslaved people once they reached adulthood.

There was Post-Revolutionary “Fracturing of Freedom,” where the war’s end created wildly different outcomes based on geography. There were Black Loyalists; upon British defeat, over 3,000 Black Loyalists were evacuated from New York to Nova Scotia, London, and later Sierra Leone via the British “Book of Negroes” ledger. And the Southern Resurgence, where in the South, the Revolution led to a tightening of slave codes. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 rapidly re-expanded slavery, setting the stage for the American Civil War. It is insightful to explore the stories of specific individuals like Crispus Attucks, Phillis Wheatley, or James Armistead Lafayette; the specific details of the ‘Book of Negroes’ evacuation; and how the Constitutional Convention of 1787 compromised on slavery.

So, as we go from Juneteenth to the Fourth of “You-Lie” (see: https://lasentinel.net/the-fourth-of-you-lie.html  never forget how Black people have been used and abused in these “United States.” And, don’t get me started on how they abused the indigenous peoples / “native Americans.”  Happy Holiday!