30. Fleeing to the British
In 1779, Britain’s commander in chief in America, General Henry Clinton, issued the Phillipsburg Proclamation, decreeing freedom for any slaves who fled their rebel masters and made it to British lines. Bondsmen took up the offer and fled by the thousands, hoping to trade slavery under the Americans for freedom with the British. In South Carolina, a quarter of the slave population – about 25,000 slaves – fled. So did a quarter of Georgia’s slaves, and about 30,000 slaves in Virginia.
Many runaways were caught, savagely punished, then returned to slavery, but those who reached British territory were free. During the war, over 100,000 slaves escaped bondage by making their way to freedom behind British lines. That struck slaveholders such as Thomas Jefferson as monstrous, and convinced many of the undecided slave owners to side with the Patriots. In a nod to that sentiment, the Declaration of Independence, notwithstanding the “All men are created equal” bit, assails the British for offering the colonists’ slaves an opportunity to secure that equality.
Read More: African American Loyalists During the Revolutionary War.