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Juneteenth and Other Lesser Known African-American Historical Culture

Khalid Elhassan June 15, 2020 34 min

Colonel Tye - American Revolutionary War — Colonel Tye as portrayed in a PBS documentary. PBS

24. Liberty to Negroes

Slaves offloaded from ship in Colonial America. History Channel

Black bondsmen took up the British on their offer of freedom. Thousands fled from their masters, hoping to trade slavery under the Americans for freedom with the British. For example, in South Carolina, a quarter of the slave population – about 25,000 slaves – fled to the British. So did a quarter of Georgia’s slave population, and about 30,000 slaves in Virginia. Many of the black runaways were caught, savagely punished by their masters, then returned to slavery. However, those who made it to British territory became free.

During the war, over 100,000 slaves succeeded in escaping bondage by making their way to freedom behind British lines. The freed black men and women aided the British as laborers, servants, nurses, guides, spies, and fighters. Many served with conspicuous courage, sporting sashes that read “Liberty to Negroes” – freedom fighters, quite literally. Unsurprisingly, many former slaves, after years of mistreatment and indignities, were eager to spill the blood of their former masters when given the chance.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.