Confederate "Heritage" Month 2023, April 20: About the pro-slavery part of the American Revolution

Historian David Waldstreicher is sympathetic to the notion that preserving slavery was a major motivation for the American Revolution and that the Dunmore Proclamation of 1775 was central to that.

Dunmore’s proclamation, which offered emancipation to slaves to joined British forces, was a response to the armed rebellion against Britain that had already begun. And there was some recruitment of slaves to fight in the Revolution in exchange for emancipation, including in North Carolina.

But he is clearly overreaching when he argues, “The final Declaration of Independence … didn’t mention slavery explicitly, but the liberation of slaves by the British provides its ultimate justification.“

Full post: https://brucemillerca.substack.com/p/confederate-heritage-month-2023-april-ebe