The Promise of Freedom for Slaves Escaping in British Ships: The Emancipation Revolution, 1740-1807

The Promise of Freedom for Slaves Escaping in British Ships: The Emancipation Revolution, 1740-1807
by: Theodore Corbett (Author)
Publisher: Pen & Sword Maritime
Publication Date: 31 Jan. 2024
Language: English
Print Length: 224 pages
ISBN-10: 1399048201
ISBN-13: 9781399048200
Book Description
Although Africans and African Americans have been left out of most accounts of the Revolutionary years, this book pieces together their emerging path toward freedom. From Britain came the Great Awakening, the advent of evangelism in America, which would provide slaves with hope for future freedom. In 1775, black emancipation commenced in Chesapeake Bay with Lord Dunmore’s proclamation and the resulting fleet, which attracted blacks, creating the first mass emancipation of slaves in British colonial history. At the end of the War for Independence, the British evacuations of loyal subjects from 1782 to 1785 were the turning point in the Emancipation Revolution. A majority of free and enslaved blacks would remain where the Royal Navy transports landed them in Jamaica, the Bahamas, Nova Scotia, or Britain. Blacks’ love of freedom is concluded with the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire.