Introduction
The original cause of American resentment, which resulted in the American Revolutionary War, was unfair taxation by the British. In Massachusetts, the famous phrase attributed to John Otis was uttered. It became the slogan in the struggle: “Taxes without representation is tyranny,” turned into the shorter slogan “No taxes without representation” (Hammar 2). The British crown responded to the dissent of the population with repressions, which was the reason for the start of armed resistance. These factors are key to understanding the role of the black population in the American Revolutionary War.
Initially, the origins of the revolution were exclusively economic reasons, which eventually grew into the inability to put up with the repressive authorities. From the very beginning, there was no talk about social benefits such as human rights, universal equality, and freedom. The initiators of the revolution were representatives of the wealthy white bourgeoisie and by no means slaves of African descent. That is why the American Revolution can be considered conservative, as shown in a specific example of its direct participants below.
Historiography
Not surprisingly, for African-Americans, who were mainly enslaved, the victory of the revolution did not result in any way guaranteeing freedom. Therefore, some of them, the so-called black loyalists, supported Britain, hoping that the British would grant them freedom. Lord Dunmore issued his Proclamation, in which he declared martial law and offered to free slaves in Virginia who wished to serve in the British army (Burnard 656). He recruited enough slaves to form the so-called “Ethiopian Regiment” and a loyalist group called the Queen’s Own Loyalist Virginia Regiment (Burnard 658).
Some black loyalists also held officer posts, such as Colonel Tye or Stephen Blucke, who took over the command after his death (White 19). The British were also supported by the Baptist preacher David George, who fought against slavery (Nickerson 15). As we can see, there were enough educated people with progressive views among the African Americans who supported the British crown. For the black loyalists, the revolutionaries were no better than the British. Doubtless, many saw the war for independence as a war of some whites against others.
Freedom as the Value of the American Revolution
The concept of freedom is undoubtedly a cornerstone of US history and American society as a whole. It is difficult to deny that the desire for freedom prompted American society to fight for independence against the British crown. However, the essence of this freedom differed significantly for different segments of the population to whom that same American society was then presented.
As noted above, for the representatives of the white bourgeoisie, this was primarily a struggle for their economic and political freedoms. For slaves, it was an opportunity to receive the most basic human rights and elementary personal freedom. It may not sound obvious, but democracy and the absence of slavery are not necessarily related: not all non-democratic regimes are characterized by literal slavery, just as in democracy, it is not excluded, as exemplified by the ancient Greek policies or the same USA before the Civil War. At the time of the Revolutionary War, the American nation had not yet been finally formed. The slaves understood that the revolution was not started to grant them freedom, which greatly complicated the formation of patriotic feelings.
Conclusions
The above arguments indicate that the American Revolutionary War was essentially a conservative revolution. Nothing is surprising in this; on the contrary, at that time, the achievements of fighters for US independence were very progressive. It took the American nation many more decades to realize the true meaning of freedom, but the beginning was precisely at the time of the revolution. African Americans may not have succeeded in immediately abolishing slavery, but the Revolutionary War at least led to the formation of the idea of liberalism. In part, it is to her that we should be grateful for the liberal values of the modern world community.
Works Cited
Burnard, Trevor. “The common cause: creating race and nation in the American revolution.” (2017): 656-658.
Hammar, Tomas. Democracy and the nation state. Routledge, 2017.
Nickerson, Graham. “Why Didn’t They Teach That? The Untold Black History of New
Brunswick.” Journal of New Brunswick Studies/Revue d’études sur le Nouveau-Brunswick 12 (2020): 15-23.
White, Michael Anthony. Liberty to Slaves: The Black Loyalist Controversy. The University