Featuring: Larry Kenneth Alexander
Transcript:
Today, we gather to confront a truth often obscured by myth and misunderstood in our collective memory—a truth that speaks not only to the origins of a nation but to the enduring struggle for justice and equality. The British North American colonies, as they approached the threshold of revolution during the early 1770s, were governed by a corrupt and extra-legal racial classification system. This system dictated whether a person was entitled to freedom or condemned to enslavement.
Yet, let us be clear. The American Revolution was not a crusade to create a utopia for white colonials. It was not a rebellion steeped in the promise of exclusion but rather a revolt against an imperial government that had become distant, corrupt, and inattentive to the needs of its people. It was a civil war—Englishmen against colonial Englishmen—fueled by a desire for self-determination and the rejection of tyranny.
At the heart of this revolution lies a figure who defies the simplistic narratives of our history books: Crispus Attucks. A Black man, a runaway slave, a former seaman, and a typical colonial. On a cold night in 1770, in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, he cried out, “Do not be afraid,” as he stood with his fellow colonists against the might of British soldiers. Moments later, he fell dead on the frozen ground of Boston Commons, becoming the first to give his life for the cause of independence. The blood shed that night in what history remembers as the Boston Massacre was a catalyst—a turning point in the relationship between the 13 colonies and the British crown. It transformed smoldering resentment into open defiance.
King George III and his hand-picked colonial governors failed to grasp the reality of frontier America. This was no mere extension of England—it was a budding nation. And like tyrants throughout history, their response was to send troops to suppress and intimidate. But their actions only fueled the fire of rebellion. By the time shots rang out at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, the 13 American colonies were already marching toward a Declaration of Independence.
Here, another truth must be spoken. When that revolution began in 1775, no laws permitting slavery were legally in effect in the American colonies. Parliament had invalidated colonial slave codes and Negro laws with the American Colonies Act of 1766, which abolished all colonial laws that denied or questioned parliamentary authority and English law. These laws, enacted by colonial assemblies, had always been extralegal—mere assertions of power that Parliament rightly struck down. This principle was affirmed six years later, on June 22, 1772, in the landmark case of James Somerset v. Charles Stewart. Under Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, England’s highest court ruled dispositively that slavery had no legal foundation within the kingdom. Mansfield declared that slavery could only exist through explicit legislation—a positive law that only Parliament could enact and which it had never done. With that ruling, James Somerset, an enslaved Black man, won his freedom, and a precedent was set: the law of the British Empire would not sanction human bondage.
As we reflect on the American Revolution, let us discard the notion that it was a movement to establish a white nation. It was a rebellion born of the universal yearning for liberty, propelled by individuals like Crispus Attucks, who stood on the front lines of history, and shaped by principles of justice that echo still. It is our responsibility to carry forward Attucks’ legacy—not to sanitize or simplify it, but to honor the complexity and courage of those who fought, not only for a new nation but for the ideals of freedom and equality that continue to challenge us today.
Please share and visit our website at Wells Center on American Exceptionalism and look for future videos in this series.