The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution, and: Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies and Sparked the American Revolution, and: Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution, and: Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty (review)

Abstract

Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in Age of Revolution. By Gary B. Nash. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. Pp. 235. Cloth, $19.95.) Slave Nation: How Slavery United Colonies and Sparked Revolution. By Alfred W. and Ruth G. Blumrosen. (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2006. Pp. 335. Cloth, $24.95; Paper, $14.95.)Rough Crossings: Britain, Slaves, and Revolution. By Simon Schama. (New York, NY: Ecco/HarperCollins, 2006. Pp. 475. Cloth, $29.95; Paper, $16.95.)Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty. By Cassandra Pybus. (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2007. Pp. 281. Cloth, $26.95; Paper, $16.00.)Reviewed by Robert G. ParkinsonThere is an increasing call among historians of Revolution to reconsider period era of Washington. Not George, mind you, but Harry. Harry Washington was considered property of patriarch of Mount Vernon until he made his escape during first year of Revolutionary War. He traveled first to New York, then to Nova Scotia, and, in a touch of powerful irony, eventually found himself in Sierra Leone accused of treason against British government twenty-four years after his former master had committed same crime. global story of Harry Washington and thousands of other former slaves who deserted fathers and embraced the tyrant George III are subjects of these engaging and provocative works. They compel Americans to turn their Revolution on its head, to ask why tens of thousands of African Americans ran away from Declaration of Independence, and to inquire into consequences for those who stayed behind. At bottom, these works together encourage us to reevaluate just how much American and have really ever been connected.This interpretation, of course, is not brand new. Since 1960s historians have called triumphant narrative of Revolution into question by spotlighting chasm between rhetoric and reality. Among vanguard of these historians has been Gary B. Nash, who follows last year's efforts to increase awareness of unknown Revolution with Forgotten Fifth, a series of three concise essays originally delivered Nathan I. Huggins lectures at Harvard University in 2004. first essay, The Black Americans' slices through thorny historiographical issues with clear and simple prose. For example, when describing complex shift toward an emergent, new form of racism, Nash puts it neatly: as war wound down dominant theoreticians of republican ideology . . . began to view black people themselves rather than institution of slavery corrosive to 'the great republican experiment' (58). For Nash-and for Cassandra Pybus and Simon Schama-there are certainly fathers to celebrate during Revolution, but not Jefferson or Adams. Nash argues that still largely unappreciated black founding fathers faced far more daunting challenges to securing their freedom than their white counterparts (48). And, Nash points out, they are not just black fathers, but black founding mothers, too, because many one-third of all runaway slaves during Revolutionary War were women, a number far greater than previous patterns. Nash's second essay, Could Slavery Have Been Abolished, updates an argument he raised more than a decade ago in Race and Revolution.1 Nash believes that several factors converged in aftermath of war for independence that made abolition of slavery in new United States possible-if effective and principled leadership could only have been found. He pins blame squarely on North for not having statesmen who could capitalize on southern weakness, antislavery fervor in North, human rights impulses of Revolution, and possibilities of trans-Appalachian territory a reserve for emancipated slaves. …