Featuring: Larry Kenneth Alexander
Transcript:
The American Revolution concluded, and with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, a profound legal dispute loomed over the fate of 500,000 Black British subjects. These individuals, born under British protection and entitled to rights under English law, were now entangled in America’s uncertain future. While the new United States adopted English law over the objections of Thomas Jefferson, the treaty explicitly directed the unconditional release of all British subjects. However, America’s Congress, fearing disunity, avoided enforcing this mandate, leaving the status of Black individuals unresolved.
General Guy Carleton, Britain’s military commander in North America, addressed this with General George Washington in May 1783, leading to the creation of the Book of Negroes—a registry documenting Black individuals seeking British refuge. America’s preserved copy, now in the National Archives, serves as evidence of the legal and moral dilemmas that persisted. The legal challenges surrounding slavery, however, predated the Revolution. In 1766, the British Parliament passed the American Colonies Act, abolishing colonial slave statutes and Negro laws for all purposes, asserting parliamentary sovereignty over colonial legislatures. In 1772, England’s highest court reaffirmed this stance in the Somerset v. Stewart case, declaring slavery unlawful unless explicitly authorized by Parliament.
Despite these precedents, the new United States ignored these legal truths. The Declaration of Independence itself accused King George III of abolishing “valuable laws,” a grievance that referenced the colonial slave codes struck down by Parliament. This acknowledgment revealed that the enslaved Black population in colonial America were crime victims, not property, entitled to liberty and due process under English law.
Yet, the British imperial government, constrained by political and logistical limitations, chose not to enforce these protections for Black subjects in the former colonies. For America, this failure represented a betrayal of the ideals of equal treatment, rule of law, and the pursuit of happiness. The Treaty of Paris, intended to resolve conflicts, became a flawed agreement—a profound compromise of liberty and a tarnishing of the American dream.
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