‘Refuge in the British Lines’: Refugees from Slavery and Sanctuary Status in New York City, 1782–1783

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores how Black freedom seekers in New York City gained recognition from the British military as refugees in the twelve months between the signing of the provisional Treaty of Paris, agreed on 30 November 1782, and the departure of the last Black refugees from the city on 30 November 1783. It focuses on the British evacuations from New York in 1783 as moments when the distinction between being a refugee from slavery and gaining the acknowledgement of refugee status became most acute. This article argues that historians have not considered how the Black refugee experience in New York City both differed from and was shaped by the earlier evacuation from Charleston. It demonstrates how Black refugees in New York pushed Sir Guy Carleton toward a more expansive policy of refuge through the collective and cumulative weight of their testimony. Gaining recognition as a refugee depended on the British military’s willingness to accept that status. British recognition of Black sanctuary status, however, was circumscribed by several factors, including enslavers’ wartime allegiances, the gendered contours of British conceptions of refuge, and Black refugees’ mobility and military service.