Featuring: Larry Kenneth Alexander
Transcript:
Forensic historical reconciliation compels us to challenge America’s foundational claim that the 500,000 Black colonials living in the 13 American colonies were legally owned by white Patriots under English law when the Revolutionary War began in 1775. This claim is a cornerstone of America’s slavery narrative, yet the evidence tells a different story. Simply put, English law did not recognize slavery as a legal institution in 1775.
The first 19 Africans brought to Virginia in 1619 were indentured servants, not slaves under English law. Their children, born in the colony, were British subjects by birth—subjects with inherent liberty rights. The principle was clear: under Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, no individual born on English soil could be born into slavery. This was not an isolated doctrine but a deeply rooted principle reaffirmed by over 550 years of English jurisprudence, beginning with the Magna Carta in 1215.
The English Bill of Rights of 1689 further enshrined these fundamental liberties, codifying habeas corpus protections and human rights for all within the realm. These protections extended across the Atlantic to Britain’s American colonies and embraced colonial-born Blacks. In 1702, the landmark Smith versus Brown and Cooper case declared, “As soon as a Negro comes to England, he is free. One may be a villain in England, but not a slave.” This was a resounding confirmation that every person in England was entitled to habeas corpus protection under English law.
Despite these established principles, colonial assemblies in America independently enacted slave laws in the 1640s while England was engulfed in civil war. However, after the English Civil War, Parliament reasserted its authority. In 1689, with the English Bill of Rights, Parliament made it clear that it was the supreme legislative body in the kingdom, codifying parliamentary sovereignty and habeas corpus protections throughout the kingdom.
In 1766, Parliament passed the American Colonies Act, or Declaratory Act, abolishing colonial laws that denied or questioned the supreme legislative powers of Parliament and all colonial laws repugnant to English law, including colonial slave codes and Negro laws. Six years later, the Somerset decision reinforced Parliament’s supreme legislative power and exclusive authority over colonial slave laws. It declared that slavery in the kingdom required explicit authorization—positive law—a power only Parliament held. Without such law, slavery was not allowed or approved in the kingdom.
In America’s Declaration of Independence four years later, the Founding Fathers denounced King George III as a tyrant for “abolishing our most valuable laws.” This is significant because, when independence was declared in July 1776, history confirms this to be true. Colonial slave laws had been abolished by Parliament in 1766. Black colonials living in colonial America therefore had the same liberty rights as white colonials and were British subjects.
This means Black colonials were entitled to liberty and possessed inalienable rights, as the Declaration of Independence articulated. They were not lawfully excluded from the ideals of the Declaration under English law. Black colonials shared the same fundamental legal rights as white Patriots when America declared itself a nation of freedom.
To fully honor the ideals we hold dear, we must acknowledge this reality. Colonial slavery was racial tyranny, and the Declaration of Independence conferred liberty rights to all enslaved Black Englishmen.
Let us confront this truth and pursue a more accurate understanding of America’s history. Please share this message and visit our website at the Wells Center on American Exceptionalism for more insights and more videos.