America’s founders’ longing for the abolition of slavery was never about liberating black people, its real purpose was to uplift white ones. The dilemma facing the patriots was not whether to end slavery, but how to end slavery without setting loose a black population which numbered one-fifth of the population. Their solution was either to banish black people to the frontier or overseas or to create a legal exile by founding the nation on racial grounds.
Slavery’s Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution (forthcoming from Louisiana State University Press, Nov. 2024).
This is the untold story of how patriot efforts to force Britain to return American slaves led to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. During the Revolutionary War British generals gave sanctuary to tens of thousands of fugitives from slavery and in negotiating peace American diplomats demanded that such fugitive slaves be returned. When the British refused to comply, a number of states passed laws confiscating Loyalist estates and blocking payments to English creditors until the runaways were surrendered. The standoff escalated as Britain responded by threatening to block America’s ability to expand westward and crippling its foreign trade, forcing the founders to begin drafting a new blueprint of federalism.