Question

2- How do you rate Washington’s handling of the matter (evacuation of New York)? Carleton’s?

Answer 1

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Slaves and Black Loyalists

The Treaty of Paris (1783) officially ended the war between Great Britain and her American colonies (the new United States of America). There were ten main articles in the treaty, and Article 7 deal specifically with slaves, stating:

All prisoners on both sides shall be set at liberty, and his Britannic majesty shall with all convenient speed, and without causing any destruction or carrying away any Negroes, or any other property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his armies, garrisons, and fleets from the said United States.

British commander Sir Guy Carleton was in charge of the British evacuation from New York. Although the final treaty wouldn’t be signed until September 3, 1783, in Paris, a similar temporary treaty had been hammered out between the British and the Americans the previous November.

On April 15, 1783, Carleton ordered the captains of British ships not to remove slaves. On the same day, the U.S. Congress told General Washington to make arrangements for getting American property and slaves back from the British. A few weeks later, on May 6, the two commanders held a meeting to discuss the issue of the transfer of American property and the evacuation of Loyalists. During the meeting, Carleton told Washington that the evacuation of New York was already well underway, and 6,000 civilians, including slaves, had already left the city in April, bound for British Canada. Carlton had ordered the making of lists of all persons leaving on the ships.

Read the letters that Washington and Carleton exchanged after the May 6th meeting. Also read the handout about a black Loyalist, Boston King. Then answer the following questions in the space provided. Be prepared to discuss your answers in a small group during our next class.