15 - Blacks in the British Colonies

Summary

Blacks living in North America fought on both sides of the American Revolutionary War, though Loyalism proved very appealing to enslaved Blacks who found themselves in a position to choose sides freely. The American Revolution brought abolition to northern states in the new United States, but strengthened slavery in the southern states. The years of the American Revolution brought great material hardship to enslaved people in the British West Indian colonies. The French and Haitian Revolutions produced more than a decade of upheaval in the Caribbean, and their legacies helped change the balance of power between slaves and masters in the three decades that followed Haitian independence. On balance, the Age of Atlantic Revolutions strengthened the hand of Black slaves in the British Caribbean, inspiring the closing of the Atlantic slave trade, the passage of “ameliorative” legislation, and Parliament’s decision to abolish slavery in British America. The American Revolution created a nation split between states that recognized slavery and those that did not, but it also produced an expansive plantation economy that continued to grow and enslave increasing numbers of people until the Civil War ended slavery in the United States.