Featuring: Larry Kenneth Alexander
Transcript:
Under the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Congress had the authority to negotiate and end America’s Revolutionary War, but their state governments were not automatically bound to comply with Congress’s directives, exposing a fundamental weakness in the federal government during the early 1780s. Further, Congress lacked the power to enforce treaty provisions on individual states, as each state operated almost like an independent nation. This raised significant uncertainty about whether the Treaty of Paris of 1783 would be well received and, even if well received, whether Americans would honor its terms. The British imperial government, fully aware of these limitations, decided to proceed with the treaty anyway.
The Treaty of Paris itself contained highly favorable terms for America. The French Foreign Minister, Charles Gravier, Count of Vergennes, famously remarked that “the English buy peace rather than make it,” underscoring the generosity of England’s concessions. Despite this, Americans did not honor key provisions of the treaty. For instance, Article V, which protected the property rights of British Loyalists, was disregarded. Article VII, which required the liberation of 500,000 Black individuals who were British subjects, was ignored. These treaty violations were significant and controversial. Proactive enforcement of these treaty provisions risked fracturing the fragile unity of the new nation. These colonial Englishmen were denied fundamental due process of law, and their plight represented a breach of this international treaty and norms established by the law of nations.
In truth, the British had no appetite to protect Loyalists’ personal possessions or guarantee liberty for its Black subjects in its former 13 colonies. From their vantage, the cost was high, the logistics difficult, and the political will to support such an undertaking in London was lacking. For the British, the Treaty of Paris had been agreed to and ratified by America’s federal government. While the British imperial government was mindful that America’s government was fragmented and lacked the cohesion to ensure treaty compliance, England had an executed international treaty with the United States. It was America’s problem now.
America’s federal government lacked the authority to compel state compliance, and issues such as reparations for Loyalists and liberty for Black colonials were deeply divisive. Once the British left the United States in late November 1783, white and Black British Loyalists were left in a precarious position, stranded in a hostile land where their allegiance to the Crown marked them as outcasts. The mother country abandoned these Englishmen. For the Black Englishmen left behind in a society dominated by prominent slaveholders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, the weaknesses of America’s early federal government had lasting and profound implications.
The Treaty of Paris was a flawed agreement and a profound betrayal of liberty. By the war’s end, the British had lost the 13 colonies and forsaken those who had fought by their side. The Loyalists were left without hope of reparations, and the 500,000 Black Englishmen could only look forward to subjugation and systemic exploitation. As for the Americans, they betrayed the ideals of equal treatment under the rule of law and the pursuit of happiness.
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