Featuring: Larry Kenneth Alexander
Transcript:
The Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended America’s Revolutionary War, was favorable to the United States but marred by significant violations. British loyalists in the American colonies, who had fought for the Crown, were denied reparations in violation of Article V. Additionally, the United States failed to grant liberty to the 500,000 Black Englishmen whose colonial slave codes and Negro laws had been abolished by Parliament under the American Colonies Act of 1766. These Black colonials, British subjects by law, were denied fundamental due process, breaching Article VII of the treaty and international norms.
Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress could bind the United States to this treaty, but it lacked the power to enforce its provisions on the states, which operated autonomously. Many state legislatures refused to comply with treaty terms, creating uncertainty about ratification and adherence. Despite these challenges, the British Imperial government signed the treaty on September 3, 1783, and America’s Congress ratified it on January 14, 1784, with the executed treaty exchanged on May 12, 1784, in Paris, France. However, British loyalists and Black Englishmen were left in limbo, trapped in a hostile land.
For Black colonials, this failure had dire implications, as prominent Founding Fathers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison claimed ownership of them. Reparations for loyalists and liberty for Black Englishmen were unpopular issues that could have jeopardized national unity. By the war’s end, the British had forsaken the 13 colonies and those who fought alongside them, leaving loyalists without reparations and Black Englishmen enslaved and exploited in America. Lacking the political will to protect its subjects, Britain left enforcement of the treaty to the fragmented and weak American federal government, essentially abandoning these Englishmen.
The British, aware of the United States’ inability to ensure compliance, failed to press for full treaty adherence, thereby nurturing racial tyranny in America. The United States, believing it had secured a favorable deal, instead betrayed its foundational ideals of liberty and equal treatment under the rule of law by denying due process to 500,000 Black Englishmen. The Treaty of Paris, while ending the war, became a flawed agreement and a profound betrayal of justice and liberty. The rule of law is not optional—it is the cornerstone of any just society.
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