What was the primary reason that motivated slaves to join the continental army?

For one thing, conquering the colonies was an almost impossible task. The sheer geographical size of the colonies made it impossible for British forces to occupy the countryside. Because of their inability to control the countryside, the British found it difficult to protect Loyalists from the fury of patriots, who sometimes tarred and feathered and even murdered those who remained loyal to the Crown. The colonies also lacked a single national capital, which, if captured, might end the conflict.

A major British mistake was failing to take sufficient advantage of Loyalists. Before the Revolutionary War began, some 50,000 Loyalists formed nearly 70 regiments to help the British maintain control the colonies. But British commanders did not trust the loyalists or respect their fighting ability. As a result, the British alienated many potential supporters.

The guerrilla tactics that Americans had learned during Indian wars proved very effective in fighting the British army. Militia men struck quickly, often from behind trees or fences, then disappeared into the forests. Because many Americans wore ordinary clothing, it was difficult for the British to distinguish rebels and loyalists.

Washington's strategy of avoiding large-scale confrontations with the royal army made it impossible for the British to deliver a knock-out blow. Only once during the Revolution (at Charleston, S.C. in 1780) did an American army surrender to British forces.

The intervention of France, Spain, and the Netherlands in the conflict made a crucial difference in the Revolution's outcome. It is highly improbable that the United States could have won its independence without the assistance of France, Spain, and Holland. Fearful of losing its sugar colonies in the West Indies, Britain was unable to concentrate its military forces in the American colonies.

All slave societies are highly vulnerable during wartime, and the British recognized that slaves might help them suppress the Revolution. In November 1775, Lord Dunmore, Virginia's royal governor, issued an emancipation proclamation, freeing any slaves or indentured servants willing to serve in the royal army. At least 800 slaves joined Lord Dunmore's forces. But the threat of slave emancipation led many southern slaveholders to support the patriot cause.

Perhaps the single most important reason for the patriot victory was the breadth of popular support for the Revolution. The Revolution would have failed miserably without the participation of thousands of ordinary farmers, artisans, and laborers who put themselves into the line of fire. The Revolution's support cut across region, religion, and social rank. Common farmers, artisans, shopkeepers, petty merchants were major actors during the Revolution. Ex-servants, uneducated farmers, immigrants, and slaves emerged into prominence in the Continental Army.

The growth of popular participation in politics began even before the Revolution. In the years preceding the war, thousands of ordinary Americans began to participate in politics--in non-importation and non-exportation campaigns, in anti-Tory mobs, and in committees of correspondence linking inland villages and seaports. Many men joined groups like the Sons of Liberty to protest British encroachments on American liberties. Many women took the lead in boycotts of British goods; they also took up the spinning wheel to produce homespun clothes. During the Revolution itself, some 400,000 Americans, including at least 5,000 African Americans, served in the fighting for at least some time.

How was the war paid for?

Congress was reluctant to levy taxes. Instead, it borrowed money by issuing bonds. It also printed money, resulting in terrible inflation. The worthlessness of Continental currency inspired the phrase, "not worth a Continental." It became more difficult to get people to lend money. By 1779 and 1780, Washington's army had to confiscate supplies in order to feed and clothe itself.

Many African Americans, like Agrippa Hull and Prince Hall, did side with the Patriot cause. 5,000 black men served in the Continental Army, and hundreds more served on the sea.

By the winter of 1777-78, the Continental Army had dwindled to 18,000 from disease and desertion. This, together with the active recruitment of enslaved blacks by the British, finally convinced Washington to approve plans for Rhode Island to raise a regiment of free blacks and slaves.

Colonel Tye was perhaps the best-known of the Loyalist black soldiers. An escaped bondman born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, he wreaked havoc for several years with his guerrilla Black Brigade in New York and New Jersey. At one time he commanded 800 men. For most of 1779 and 1780, Tye and his men terrorized his home county -- stealing cattle, freeing slaves, and capturing Patriots at will. On September 1, 1780, during the capture of a Patriot captain, Tye was shot through the wrist, and he later died from a fatal infection.

• Colonel Tye
• Runaway ad for Titus

In October 1781, as Patriot and French ground forces and the French fleet surrounded Cornwallis' men at Yorktown, Virginia, the British sent their black allies to face death between the battle lines. After Cornwallis' surrender, the Americans rounded up the surviving blacks for re-enslavement. For the next year, as Loyalists withdrew from southern ports, scores of black refugees sought passage to New York -- the last British stronghold.

Many thousands of African Americans who aided the British lost their freedom anyway. Many of them ended up in slavery in the Caribbean. Others, when they attempted to leave with the British, in places like Charleston and Savannah, were prevented. And there are incredible letters written by southerners of Africans after the siege of Charleston, swimming out to boats, and the British hacking away at their arms with cutlasses to keep them from following them. So it was a very tragic situation. And of the many thousands of Africans who left the plantations, not many of them actually got their freedom.

-- Margaret Washington, historian, on the evacuation of Charleston

-- Boston King

In November 1782, Britain and America signed a provisional treaty granting the former colonies their independence. As the British prepared for their final evacuation, the Americans demanded the return of American property, including runaway slaves, under the terms of the peace treaty. Sir Guy Carleton, the acting commander of British forces, refused to abandon black Loyalists to their fate as slaves. With thousands of apprehensive blacks seeking to document their service to the Crown, Brigadier General Samuel Birch, British commandant of the city of New York, created a list of claimants known as The Book of Negroes. Boston King and his wife, Violet, were among 3,000 to 4,000 African Americans Loyalists who boarded ships in New York bound for Nova Scotia, Jamaica, and Britain.

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