The African Americans’ Revolution: Black Patriots, Black Founders, and the Concept of Interest Convergence

Abstract

10 | BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 82, NO 1 82 No.1 THE AFRICAN AMERICANS’ REVOLUTION: BLACK PATRIOTS, BLACK FOUNDERS, AND THE CONCEPT OF INTEREST CONVERGENCE By LaGarrett J. King and Jason Williamson Recent scholarship has argued for the consideration of Black people as founders of the United States of America. The Founding Fathers are associated with the development of the various freedom documents leading to the new democracy; however, Black people were restricted from participating based on racial ideology. Therefore, it is believed that the concept of a Black Founder should not be conceptualized in the same way as a White Founder. Black Founders had a distinctly different set of beliefs, ideas, and moral aptitudes than White Founders.1 Black Founders were persons from 1787-1837 who conceptualized and developed a separate country for Black people within the United States. They are defined by their efforts to (1) build social institutions for Black people in the United States; (2) emphasize universal emancipation; and (3) incite dialogue over the meaning of Black identity.2 Their purpose was to help establish a separate and safe country for Black people, both free and enslaved, within the racist structures of the United States. Black American revolutionary soldiers fit within this paradigm. Black American revolutionary soldiers were Black Founders who fought for universal emancipation and challenged the meaning of Black identity. Their presence and actions made political statements about Blackness and race. Yet, within most school resources and textbooks, Black revolutionary soldiers are referred to as Black patriots. The term Black patriot implies that Black and White revolutionary soldiers fought for the same causes. The authors of this article argue that is not the case, and a clearer conception of these terms could provide a more holistic explanation as to who these Black American revolutionary soldiers were, why they would join the Continental army, and how their presence influenced democracy. Black American revolutionary soldiers did fight in the war, not out of love for a country that oppressed them, but out of love for life, survival, and the preservation of their race. As well, these soldiers fought because of their desire to be free of enslavement and second-class citizenry. The mere presence of the Black soldiers repudiates racist ideas that Black people were not brave and capable of military service. Their existence not only demonstrated physical strength, but required a certain mental capability. Overall, Black revolutionary soldiers were fighting for their own freedom, not for the freedom of America—which was decidedly not the land of the free. And, while many soldiers played a significant role in the war in pursuit of their own liberty, they continued to be met with the unforgiving, race-laden reality of servitude. Nevertheless, Black soldiers were needed to fill enlistment quotas, and were therefore sought out to continue to fight in the war. In fact, the American Revolution is a case study of interest convergence. Interest convergence3 denotes that within racial states such as the burgeoning United States, any liberatory progress for Black people is only made if that progress also benefits the dominant culture, in this case, the liberation of the White colonists of America. In other words, the decision about Black enlistment within the Continental army was not revised out of some moral mandate, but based on manpower needs for the colonists to win the war. George Washington’s revised policy on Black military soldiers was based on a convergence of the interests of a growing British military, securing the slave economy, and increasing labor needs for the Continental army. Dunmore’s proclamation increased the British military numbers when hundreds of the enslaved population defected to the British side in search of freedom. Washington even admitted that the proclamation would benefit the British war efforts. When enslaved persons left the plantations, this caused serious social and economic unrest in the colonies, and encouraged many White plantation owners who were initially ambivalent about whether to join the Patriot cause. Another interest that converged BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 82, NO. 1 | 11 82 No.1 to produce the need for Black enlistment was the fact that many White American revolutionary soldiers only fought in three- to four-month...