Important historical work that adds to the perspective of American history, especially the War of 1812, in which enslaved people fought for the British to earn their freedom. ( )

Important historical work that adds to the perspective of American history, especially the War of 1812, in which enslaved people fought for the British to earn their freedom. ( )

nonfiction/history.
This provides a side of history that most people don't hear about in school, and as such it makes a valuable contribution. Some of the subject matter (battles, war) is not really my milieu so I struggle to absorb parts; other parts seem repetitious and might be summed up neatly in a few paragraphs (rather than 30 pages). From a genealogical standpoint it is interesting to learn about the 5000 slaves who did escape slavery by joining the British during those years, and where they settled (Canada, Barbados, Trinidad, that odd Fort in Georgia) afterwards. ( )

Mostly an account of the ways in which whites feared enslaved Africans/African Americans while insisting that there was nothing to fear because of their inherent inferiority. The British, both during the Revolution and the War of 1912, used the promise of freedom to secure aid from local enslaved people and escapees, while white Americans found in this practice additional grounds for complaint against the British. Taylor emphasizes the ways in which equality for whites harmed enslaved people—abolishing primogeniture spread slaveholding to more whites, broadening the political base supporting slavery, while also making it more likely that enslaved families would be torn apart upon the death of a wealthy owner. ( )

American slavery is commonly profiled in the 1850-1860 period, near its end. Taylor in this account gives a different history of slavery in the Tidewater of Virginia and Maryland from the Revolutionary War to 1832. - as such it doesn't end with a satisfying day of freedom. Or does it? Leading up to the War of 1812 and in its aftermath, American slaves fled to British war ships who then resettled them in places like Bermuda and Nova Scotia to become free citizens. Entire plantations of slaves stole way in the night and rowed in canoes out to the warships in the Chesapeake. The slaves in turn provided valuable guides and sources of military information. Slaves even returned to their plantations - at the head of armed British raiding parties - to rescue family members. The micro-stories Taylor discovered in old letters and court documents are dramatic enough for novel or movie material.

The main thesis is that the slave owning states were in constant fear of a slave uprising; it directly affected the outcome of the War of 1812 as they refused to send enough troops north to fight the British for fear of the "Internal Enemy" at home, a phrase commonly used at the time. This idea of the "Internal Enemy" in some ways lingers on to this day and it's fascinating to see where it began - the convoluted rationalizations of the Founding Fathers who fought for the Liberty from Britain to enslave others. This led to a kind of paranoia that the great sin that would one day came back to haunt them. And it did. ( )