The Responses of African Americans to the American Revolution - Essay Example

18 October By Law, Pen, and Force: The Responses of African Americans to the American Revolution Before, and even long after, the American Revolution, Africans in America were not seen or treated as Americans. In colonial America, they largely experienced inhumane treatment as slaves. After being kidnapped or lied to in Africa, it is unlikely that these slaves would feel any sense of loyalty to the Americans (Russell 13). However, as the events culminated toward the American Revolution, many black slaves felt that it was the perfect opportunity to demand for their freedom (Russell 13). The principle of freedom attracted the blacks to the cause of the American Revolution (Kaplan and Kaplan 3). Since both Britain and America offered “freedom,” the blacks chose the parties that made the best and fastest proposals, not knowing that they would renege on their promises. The African Americans responded to the ideas and actions that led to the American Revolution by publishing literature works, joining the protests against the additional taxes on Americans, demanding freedom and equality, negotiating terms of freedom, bringing their cases to courts, and soon, supporting either the British as loyalists, or the Americans as patriots, during the American Revolution. Literature helped African Americans express their sentiments regarding slavery, although as slave/writers, they hid their messages under religious terms. Jupiter Hammon is considered as the first Black writer to publish in America (Reuben par. 1). His works appeared religious only, but they also dealt with the themes of race, slavery, and the isolation of slaves from the whites (Reuben par. 1). During this time, slaveholders had the responsibility of approving and editing the works of their slaves, and so Hammon’s careful use of words with double meaning underscores his ability to exploit literature as a means of expressing his indignation against social injustice because of racial discrimination (Reuben par. 1). In Hammon’s poem, “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, With Penitential Cries,” he stresses that only Jesus Christ can save humanity. His religious exhortations most probably pleased his master so well without recognizing that Hammon also demands the salvation of his enslaved race. After establishing that Jesus is salvation, he says: “Dear Jesus, we would fly to Thee,/And leave off every Sin” (3.1-3.2). In other words, he is saying that blacks can receive salvation or freedom through religion too. Hammon compares the captive spirits of Christians and slaves in discreet terms: “Salvation now comes from the Lord,/He being thy captive slave” (8.3-8.4). He believes that the Lord will grant salvation even unto slaves. When Hammon speaks of hunger for faith, he connotes the hunger for freedom too: “Ho! every one that hunger hath,/Or pineth after me,/Salvation be thy leading Staff,/To set the Sinner free” (16.1-16.4). He asserts that whites and blacks are all sinners and will equally be freed by God’s mercy. Before Hammon ends his poem, he underscores the equality of all, because Christ does not choose who to save among all His children: “Salvation high and low;/ And thus the Soul on Christ rely,/ To heaven surely go” (18.2-18.4). High and low means all races, and they will all go to the same paradise, if they cannot get this paradise in America. Another slave, Phillis Wheatley, takes literature as a means of expressing her thoughts on racism and freedom. In her poem, “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of that Celebrated Divine, and Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Late Reverend, and Pious George Whitefield,” she slowly shifts the pronouns used to transfer American citizenship to all, including slaves. At first, she says “When his AMERICANS were burden'd sore” (line 15). Later on, she states: “Great COUNTESS! we Americans revere/Thy name, and thus condole thy grief sincere” (45-46). By choosing the first plural person “we,” Wheatley shares the sentiment that Africans are Americans too. Like Hammon, Wheatley believes that her brethren can go to Christ and surrender their tribulations: “Take HIM, "my dear AMERICANS," he said,/Be your complaints in his kind bosom laid” (39-40). She uses Jesus as the judge of all. After this, Wheatley underlines that the Africans can rely on their just Savior: “Take HIM ye Africans, he longs for you;/Impartial SAVIOUR, is his title due” (41-42). The word “impartial” reinforces the belief that in God’s eyes, all races are equal. Furthermore, Wheatley argues that religion equalizes all and if given the opportunity, blacks can also serve higher social, economic, and political positions: “If you will chuse to walk in grace's road,/You shall be sons, and kings, and priests to GOD” (43-44). In another poem, “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Wheatley thanks her slave conditions for bringing her to God: “'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,/Taught my benighted soul to understand/That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too” (1-3). The third line curiously highlights the “Savior” in this religion. It indicates the belief that freedom is a form of salvation too. Furthermore, in this poem, Wheatley asserts that education and religion can develop African’s faith and mind: “Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,/May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train” (7-8). She shows that a benevolent Savior does not choose who to save, as long as they have faith. Another way of seeing this is that the “angelic train” encompasses all people, so they deserve the same rights and treatments. Aside from writing about themes of freedom and inhumane slavery, African Americans joined the protests before the American Revolution started, which showed their support for the ideals of freedom. Although not many primary sources on the Boston riots and mobs specified the contribution of blacks in their protests, blacks were attracted to these protests that stood for the ideals of autonomy and freedom of speech and mobilization (Kaplan and Kaplan 3). When the mobs acted against the Stamp Act, black sailors and workers joined the white protesters (Horton and Horton 51). In New York City, the Queen’s Head tavern, which was situated at Broad and Pearl Streets, became infamous for revolutionary activities (Horton and Horton 52). “Black Sam” Fraunces, a West Indian mulatto, owned the pub, which became “the staging area for violence in opposition to the Stamp Act and later in 1774 for New York’s counterpart of the Boston Tea Party” (Horton and Horton 52). In a drawing on October 31, 1765, with the title “Colonists are Protesting ‘Taxation Without Representation’,” a young black boy joined the demonstrations. His right arm is raised in support for the cries of the white people. The news article stressed: “We’ve resolved that Parliament has no power to tax us…because we aren’t represented in Parliament” (“Colonists are Protesting” par. 9). In a way, the blacks wanted to have the same status, the status of a free people who will not condone acts of injustice against them. Despite the oppressed conditions of the blacks, they managed to use the principles of the American Revolution to call for freedom. For them, the raging events presented chances for equality in law and in the eyes of white colonists. Despite supporting the aspirations of the whites, many black slaves felt that their freedom would never be fully granted to them, so they demanded their freedom through violence and by running away. In PBS’s “Episode 2: Liberty in the Air” of Slavery and the Making of America, Freeman narrates the start of the slave riots. Quack was a slave and married to the governor’s cook. When Quack approached the governor, the latter was very displeased and aimed to stop Quack from easily entering his residence (PBS line 2). The governor ordered the fort's centuries that Quack should not be allowed admission if he came back (PBS 2). Quack warned them that he would burn the building down if further stopped from being with his wife (PBS 2). The fort was burned and Quack became the primary suspect (PBS 2). From there, several other buildings, stores, and warehouses were burned down (PBS 3). These actions signified power and autonomy. It showed the whites that blacks could resort to violence, if their needs were not met. The news about the riots instigated rumors that sparked panic: “Rumors of slaves organizing rebellions traveled the Atlantic seaboard. Two years earlier in an uprising of slaves in Stono, South Carolina some whites were murdered. Now, white New Yorkers panicked” (PBS 5). Because of the desperation of the blacks, they used violence to fight for their rights. In actuality, these rights were not even mainly about freedom at first, but to be with their loved ones: “They lashed out at the laws that prohibited them from gathering together. But their most common complaint was not being allowed to visit their loved ones” (PBS 10). The most basic emotional and social human needs are human connection and affection, but even these were denied to slaves. If the slaves cannot revolt, they ran away: “Another ad describes Peter, as Virginia born, running away with iron shackles on his legs” (PBS 32). Thus, when no other options were available, the blacks revolted or ran away. Since few took rebellion and running away as desirable because it meant the breaking of their families, other slaves learned to negotiate some forms of freedom. Some slaves had managed to balance their work load and having self-initiated enterprises: “Slaves…negotiated with their masters for more time to work on their own gardens or to sell and trade produce they cultivated” (PBS 34). Through these efforts, some slaves had bought their freedom, as well as their families. Slaves wanted to be free and to acquire that using legal means: “Lizzie (a slave) was making for herself some wheat cakes from the scraps that were left over...and Mum Bett (Lizzie’s older sister) is watching from the other side of the room” (PBS 56). These efforts signified the demand the freedom to own their labor. They used this opportunity to slowly help them attain complete freedom from their masters. Using laws provided another way to attain freedom. On March 1773, Dabney Carr of Charlotte recommended in Virginia’s House of Burgesses an organization of intercolonial committees of communication and a combination of councils in the colonies (Beck 118). They voted to create a Committee of Correspondence that comprised of Carr, Speaker Peyton Randolph, Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson, and their resolutions were acclaimed by the Massachusetts Great and General Court which made their committee authorized in May (Beck 118). That month committees were made in Connecticut and New Hampshire (Beck 118). Other committed were formed in “South Carolina in July, Georgia in September, Maryland and Delaware in October, North Carolina in December, New York in January 1774, and New Jersey in February” (Beck 118). After these committees were made, legal suits for freedom ensued: “In Boston on April 20, 1773 four slaves on behalf of others petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for their freedom so that they could return to Africa. Another petition for freedom was sent to Governor Gage on May 25, 1774” (Beck 118). Organizing and using these organizations to fight for freedom became avenues for emancipation for the black slaves. They were starting to realize that the white man’s laws and systems could be used to attain their cherished freedoms. When laws did not suffice, slaves supported either the British as loyalists or the Americans as patriots during the American Revolution. Harriet Beecher Stowe notes the magnanimity of supporting the cause of the Americans for black slaves: …[the blacks gave public service to] a nation which did not acknowledge them as citizens and equals, and in whose interests and prosperity they had less at stake. It was not for their own land they fought, nor even for a land which had adopted them, but for a land which had enslaved them, and whose laws, even in freedom, oftener oppressed than protected. Bravery, under such circumstances, has a peculiar beauty and merit. (Kaplan and Kaplan 3). Stowe understands the paradox of fighting for a country that gave no citizenship status. On April 1775, war broke out and the black people had diverged on whose side to choose: “In the North some 5,000 black men joined in mixed and all black regiments to fight on the side of the patriots some fought as minutemen in the earliest battles of the war” (PBS 81). The Patriot Army was deficient in people, especially when the whites did not always volunteer to be soldiers (PBS 81). At first, General Washington did not arm black men for the fear that they would revolt against them (PBS 81). Washington changed his mind when he got word that the British promised freedom to slaves who joined them: “In November of 1775 Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation offering freedom to enslaved people who fled to the British who joined his Ethiopian corp” (PBS 84). From here, thousands of slaves chose the sides they thought would give them freedom. Hence, when they fought for America or Britain, they did not only act out of national loyalty, but more so, out of the loyalty to their own rights to freedom and autonomy. Law, pen, force, and ingenuity were some of the responses of the African Americans during the Revolution. They diverged on the ways of being free and expressing their rights. Altogether, these responses worked within the space of the ideas and actions for autonomy and freedom. They aligned their actions with the pursuit for happiness and liberty that the American Revolution stood for. As a result, the war did not only embrace national sovereignty; it became the pulpit from which African Americans struggled for their collective aspirations for genuine emancipation. Works Cited Beck, Sanderson. “American Resistance to British Taxes 1763-75.” 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. “Colonists are Protesting ‘Taxation Without Representation.” 31 Oct. 1765. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Hammon, Jupiter. “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, With Penitential Cries.” 1760. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Horton, James Oliver, and Lois E. Horton. In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Community and Protest among Northern Free Blacks, 1700-1800. New York: Oxford University P, 1997. Print. Kaplan, Sidney, and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. Print. PBS. “Episode 2: Liberty in the Air.” Slavery and the Making of America. 2004. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Reuben, Paul P. “Chapter 2: Jupiter Hammon (1711-1806?).” PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project, 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Russell, David L. The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2000. Print. Wheatley, Phillis. “An Elegiac Poem, On The Death Of That Celebrated Divine, And Eminent Servant Of Jesus Christ, The Late Reverend, And Pious George Whitefield.” 1770. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. ---. “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” 1773. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Read More