Black Patriots and Loyalists
Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence
- Contents
- Review Quotes
- Awards

Acknowledgments
Fear, Hope, and the Two Revolutions in America
Chapter 1
Lord Dunmore, Black Insurrection, and the Independence Movement in Virginia and South Carolina
Chapter 2
Emancipation and Revolution: The Conjunction of Pragmatism and Principle
Chapter 3
The Laurens Family and Emancipation
Chapter 4
Black Fighters for Freedom: Patriot Recruitment and the Two Revolutions
Chapter 5
Black Fighters for Freedom: British Recruitment and the Two Revolutions
Chapter 6
Black Fighters in the Two Revolutions
Chapter 7
Honor in Defeat
Chapter 8
Postwar Black Emigrations: The Search for Freedom and Self-Government
Chapter 9
Democratic Internationalism and the Seeds of Freedom
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“Alan Gilbert has deftly welded together the white American political revolution for independence with the black American social revolution for freedom from slavery. In exploiting a wide range of primary sources, he has given voice to the thousands of enslaved (and sometimes free) blacks who sought ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ with the British. Gilbert’s signal contribution to the fraught question of how many blacks fled to the British compels the attention of every student of the American Revolution.”
“Drawing on first-person accounts and other primary sources, Gilbert tells an often inspiring but ultimately sad story, since American slavery endured and even expanded after the revolution. Still, the personal stories of those who fought on the patriots’ side in an all-black regiment and on the loyalist side in exchange for a promise of freedom are fascinating and informative. Gilbert convincingly asserts that their example eventually helped inspire other liberation movements in the Western Hemisphere.”
Before Columbus Foundation: American Book Award
Won
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