322 Running from Bondage in Revolutionary America

Ben Franklin's World

Liz Covart

History, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2022

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

During the War for American Independence, the British Army attempted to create chaos and inflict economic damage to the revolutionaries’ war effort by issuing two proclamations that promised freedom to any enslaved person who ran away from their revolutionary owners. How did enslaved people make their escape to British lines? What do we know about their lives and escape experiences? Karen Cook-Bell, an Associate Professor of History at Bowie State University and author of Running From Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America, joins us to investigate the experiences of enslaved women who feld their bondage for the British Army’s promise of freedom. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/322 Complementary Episodes 🎧 Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtons’ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge 🎧 Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolitionism 🎧 Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers 🎧 Episode 162: Dunmore’s New World 🎧 Episode 212: Researching Biography 🎧 Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July? 🎧 Episode 312: Joshua D. Rothman, The Domestic Slave Trade REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 Topic Request Form 📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community LISTEN 🎧 🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music 🛜 Pandora CONNECT 🦋 Liz on Bluesky 👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn 🛜 Liz’s Website SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an airwave media podcast.
0:04.0	Ben Franklin's world is a production of the
0:06.2	Omaha Institute and is sponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. and welcome to episode 322 of Ben Franklin's world.
0:24.6	The podcast dedicated to helping you
0:26.8	learn more about how the people and events
0:28.7	of our early American past have shaped
0:30.8	the present day world we live in. And I'm your host, Liz Kovart.
0:35.0	During the American War for Independence,
0:38.0	the British Army attempted to create chaos
0:40.0	and inflict economic damage to the Revolutionary's war effort by issuing two
0:43.9	proclamations that promised freedom to enslave persons who made their way to
0:47.9	British lines during the war. Now the first proclamation was issued by Lord
0:51.7	Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia in November
0:55.0	1775. Dunmore's proclamation offered freedom to any enslaved person in Virginia who left
1:01.3	their revolutionary owners and joined the British Army.
1:04.0	Four years later there was a second proclamation this one issued by General
1:08.6	Sir Henry Clinton in June 1779. Understanding that the British needed to decisively turn the tide of war,
1:15.4	Clinton issued his Phillipsburg proclamation which promised to protect all
1:20.0	enslaved persons who made their way to British lines by forbidding any person to sell or
1:25.1	claim rights over any African or African American who had taken refuge with the British Army.
1:31.1	So with these offers of freedom on the table, how did enslaved people make their escape to British
1:35.7	lines? And what do we know about their lives once they reached the British Army?
	...

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