Abstract
The last quarter of the eighteenth century was crucial in the debate over slavery in the American colonies because when thirteen of the provinces in British America made their break with Britain, their inhabitants and leaders had a debate over what kind of country they would form. Although these colonies were not the only places with slaves or the only places that are discussed here, their role is prominent because of these critical circumstances. The American Revolution, like the French Revolution, declared liberty to be a principal theme. Freedom at this time, unlike that in the period of the English Revolution almost one hundred and fifty years before, was a product of the Enlightenment. The question of universal rights for human beings was being raised and even though questions of class, race, and gender took a long time to resolve in practice (and indeed continue to this day), at least the theory called into question the ascendancy of European males of substantial property. Slavery, then, was part of a wider movement to equal civil and human rights, a change that is still underway.
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Notes
Jeremy Belknap, A Discourse, Intended to Commemorate the Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus; Delivered at the Request of the Historical Society in Massachusetts, on the 23rd Day of October 1792, Being the Completion of the Third Century Since that Memorable Event (Boston: Belknap and Hall, 1792), 19.
For this painting, see Hugh Honour, The New Golden Land (New York: Pantheon Books, 1975), plate 150.
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Orlando Figes, Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia (2002; London, Penguin, 2003), 143–6.
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Robin Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery 1776–1848 (London: Verso, 1998).
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© 2005 Jonathan Hart
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Hart, J. (2005). Slavery Since the American Revolution. In: Contesting Empires. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403981325_6
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