Slavery and the American Revolution

Historian Richard Bell of the University of Maryland explores the American Revolution through the experiences of enslaved and free African Americans. With more than half a million African Americans living in slavery at the war’s outset, the conflict created new opportunities to pursue freedom. British promises of emancipation drew thousands away from rebel enslavers, making the Revolution a struggle over slavery as well as independence. While most remained enslaved after the war, more than 6,000 escaped on British ships, including over 3,000 Black loyalists evacuated from New York in 1783.