Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence

By Alan Gilbert

We commonly think of the American Revolution as simply the war for independence from British colonial rule. But, of course, that independence actually applied to only a portion of the American population—African Americans would still be bound in slavery for nearly another century. Alan Gilbert asks us to rethink what we know about the Revolutionary War, to realize that while white Americans were fighting for their freedom, many black Americans were joining the British imperial forces to gain theirs. Further, a movement led by sailors—both black and white—pushed strongly for emancipation on the American side. There were actually two wars being waged at once: a political revolution for independence from Britain and a social revolution for emancipation and equality.

Gilbert presents persuasive evidence that slavery could have been abolished during the Revolution itself if either side had fully pursued the military advantage of freeing slaves and pressing them into combat, and his extensive research also reveals that free blacks on both sides played a crucial and underappreciated role in the actual fighting. Black Patriots and Loyalists contends that the struggle for emancipation was not only basic to the Revolution itself, but was a rousing force that would inspire freedom movements like the abolition societies of the North and the black loyalist pilgrimages for freedom in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Release date: Mar 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9780226293097

Alan Gilbert

Born in Southampton, England, Alan Gilbert attended the West of England School and St Lloys College in Exeter. He took his degree in psychology and art at The Open University, graduating in 1984. Gilbert and his wife, Barbara, have three grown children. He lives in Southampton.

Reviews for Black Patriots and Loyalists

[shrike58 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Gilbert takes on a difficult topic here in terms of examining the war within a war that was the effort of those of African descent to win their own freedom during the American Revolution, and the failures of the "Founding Fathers" to live up to their own rhetoric about freedom. This is while trying to capture and emphasize what this experience meant to slaves and freedman from their perspective. However, I get little sense that Gilbert is interested in writing about the war itself; mostly just what it meant to the project of emancipation in the Atlantic World.Further on the downside, while Gilbert makes it clear that he does not intend to dodge controversy, I also have to admit that he does not write with a great deal of flair, and I found his monograph to be something of a chore to read. I would have welcomed more controversy in regards to the "Founding Fathers" if that is what was necessary to enliven the proceedings. If the topic wasn't important I probably would have set the book aside early on.