A conversation with the author of a book entitled Rough Crossings: Britain, Slaves & the American Revolution that documents the little known fact that many blacks fought for and supported the British Crown in the American war of independence, and how the increasingly anti-slavery position of Great Britain convinced many whites in the South to throw their support to the side of Washington and the Patriots, which, the author argues, was a major reason why the British lost the war. In short, that the American war of independence was ultimately won to maintain slavery, the Revolutionary war saw the first mass emancipation of slaves in the Americas, by the British. One of the slaves that deserted his master for the British side was Henry Washington, a slave of George Washington. Another former slave even renamed himself British Freedom. Even though they lost the war, most British officers honoured their promise to the escaped slaves. The British commander in New York at the wars end, where some 3,000 runaway slaves had taken refuge, adamantly refused an irate Washingtons demand to give them back. Instead, he put them on ships for Nova Scotia. Within 20 years of the war, the British state had become the first in history to outlaw the slave trade and had already embarked on a ferocious near global crusade to eliminate first the slave trade, and then, slavery itself. https://youtube/watch?v=RPc7r_BWQ6c
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 21:14:34 +0000
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