The Promise of Freedom for Slaves Escaping in British Ships: The Emancipation Revolution, 1740-1807 [Hardcover]

A strength of the book is Corbetts use of short biographic examples of free Blacks and abolitionists in each of the chapters to illustrate the chapters point. Finding more of these stories will serve to expand our understanding of the lived experiences of the people who escaped slavery during the American Revolution and their subsequent lives. The Northern MarinerAlthough Africans and African Americans have been left out of most accounts of the Revolutionary years, this book pieces together their emerging path toward freedom. From Britain came the Great Awakening, the advent of evangelism in America, which would provide slaves with hope for future freedom. In 1775, black emancipation commenced in Chesapeake Bay with Lord Dunmores proclamation and the resulting fleet, which attracted blacks, creating the first mass emancipation of slaves in British colonial history. At the end of the War for Independence, the British evacuations of loyal subjects from 1782 to 1785 were the turning point in the Emancipation Revolution. A majority of free and enslaved blacks would remain where the Royal Navy transports landed them in Jamaica, the Bahamas, Nova Scotia, or Britain. Blacks love of freedom is concluded with the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire.An uplifting work of black history in the context of the American War for Independence.A strength of the book is Corbetts use of short biographic examples of free Blacks and abolitionists in each of the chapters to illustrate the chapters point. Finding more of these stories will serve to expand our understanding of the lived experiences of the people who escaped slavery during the American Revolution and their subsequent lives.GB