Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

exception to this was in times of crisis, particularly military conflict with other
European colonizers, Native nations, or African rebels ."
An example ofAfricans utilizing the arms provided to them by European
colonizers for personal and collective liberation occurred during the conscription
of enslaved Africans by British royalists during the American Revolution . Faced
with rebellion from subjects in its North American colonies and a shortage in its
defense forces, British officials began to solicit Africans as combatants with the
promise of freedom. In November of 1775, the American independence forces
rejected the proposal to have Blacks, free or slave, in its military. Days before the
American decision, British governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, proclaimed any
enslaved African who escaped from slavers that were supporting the rebellion
against the British crown, and took up arms in support of England, would be
emancipated . By early December, 300 Africans were armed by the British "as fast
as they came in ." The motivation of these African combatants was clear as the
breastplate of their uniform, which was inscribed "Liberty to Slaves ." The African
combatants who took advantage of Dunmore's proclamation were named by him
"Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment." These troops were responsible for the
routing of American forces at Kemp's Landing and the capture of two American
colonels . They were also utilized as guerrillas to expropriate food and free other
enslaved Africans from Virginia plantations . ' 8 The British also made use of
African combatants in east Florida, South Carolina and Georgia. While the major-
ity of the African troops employed by England were evacuated as free people with
British loyalists and military personnel after the American victory, some choose to
remain in North America to finish what they had started. Three hundred African