Featuring: Larry Kenneth Alexander
Transcript:
By early 1782, the American Revolution was no longer a triumph of liberty but a war of survival. What began as a bold declaration of independence had descended into a brutal grind of attrition, testing the fragile resolve of a new nation. The treasury was empty, political unity was cracking, and the dream of freedom teetered on the edge of collapse.
Across the Atlantic, the British Empire, scarred but unbowed, saw an opportunity not to innovate but to restore. Britain aimed to reclaim what it believed was rightfully its own, grounded in the colonial charters, England’s common law, and their interpretation of sovereignty. Meanwhile, America was unraveling. The lifeline of French support had frayed as France faced its own internal crises. Without allies, resources, or options, the fledgling United States had only one course left: peace.
The leaders of this fractured nation placed their hopes in five remarkable statesmen—Franklin, Jay, Adams, Jefferson, and Laurens—charged with negotiating the Treaty of Paris. Their task was immense, their stakes immeasurable. The negotiation table was fraught with challenges, but none more complex, more defining than the fate of Black colonials. Under English law, every Black person born in America was a British subject, entitled to liberty and rights under the English Bill of Rights of 1689. Parliament’s American Colonies Act of 1766 had legislatively abolished colonial slave laws, and the Somerset decision of 1772 had made slavery unconstitutional across British soil. Yet, in the American colonies, these men, women, and children were treated as property under extralegal colonial slave codes.
The British framed this issue not as a question of property, but a matter of national honor. Promises had been made; freedom had been pledged through Britain’s Southern strategy, which sought to free enslaved Black colonials who aligned with the crown. For America’s diplomats, this posed a Gordian knot. They knew the South’s economy depended on slavery, and any treaty threatening that foundation would face inevitable rejection by Congress. To secure peace, the Americans crafted a compromise. Article 7 of the Treaty of Paris stipulated that Britain would not carry away any Negroes or other property belonging to American citizens. Behind this language lay a stark reality: slavery had never been lawful under English law, and the British were under no legal obligation to return enslaved people.
The negotiators knew this. They understood slavery’s unlawful origins, recognized the authority of Parliament’s abolition of colonial slave codes, and grasped the weight of the Somerset ruling. Yet they prioritized independence over justice, peace over principle. This was America’s bargain. A nation born pursuing liberty made its founding peace by tolerating its gravest contradiction. It is a moment that demands reflection, not only on the courage of those who fought for freedom, but on the compromises they made and the people they left behind.
Let us not turn away from this truth. Let us remember that the promise of liberty is not fulfilled through words alone, but through the tireless work of justice. Our founders secured a nation, but we must ensure that its ideals are realized for every person without exception. This is our charge, and this is our legacy to shape.
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