What Happened to Thomas Jefferson's Escaped Slaves?

During the American War of Independence, thousands of slaves took immense risks in a bid for freedom

“State of the losses of Thomas Jefferson in the county of Cumberland by the British in the year 1781.”, starts a document, that, despite its bureaucratic tone, reveals some of the horror of the Revolutionary War for African Americans. As the United States was in the last stages of fighting for independence, thousands of slaves were fleeing to the British in a bid to gain their freedom. For many, this bid was successful. But for many more, seeking their freedom meant death or a return to bondage.

The liberating British

From the very beginning of the American Revolution, British commanders sought to do damage to the rebellious colonists by providing a refuge for escaped slaves within British-held territory. The primary form of wealth in the Tidewater and South, emancipation promised to wreak economic havoc on the American cause. By the end of the war, tens of thousands of slaves would flee to British lines. Jefferson’s State of Losses gives a personal look into this mass movement of people, reporting 14 slaves lost to the British in 1781.

One of the largest emancipation drives was during General Cornwallis’ campaign in Virginia. During the campaign, thousands of slaves fled to his army and began working for the British as porters and camp followers, at times even enlisting outright. Jefferson’s slaves likely escaped during this campaign. George Washington also had slaves escape to Cornwallis’s army.

Deadly smallpox

However as Washington’s army closed in and besieged the British at Yorktown, smallpox began to spread among the escaped slave population in Cornwallis’ army. Since the start of the war, smallpox had been a terrible risk for slaves that reached British lines. The historian Cassandra Pybus notes that the British themselves were generally inoculated against the disease, but both the free and slave populations in Virginia were not. Fearing they would spread disease and be a drain on resources, Cornwallis expelled the sick slaves from his army. Having nowhere else to go, many of them “lay between the lines and waited to die” according to historian Gregory Urwin.

The State of Losses puts this into a human perspective. Of the 14 slaves reported lost, all but one died. One slave, Sam, is reported to have been never heard from again. Most died without ever returning to their place of slavery, but three returned to Jefferson’s plantation and subsequently died of the smallpox that had ravaged the escaped slaves in British lines.

The human cost

The range of ages and genders represented among the runaways is also striking. In the early parts of the American revolution, it was mainly skilled men that escaped to the British. By the time that Jefferson’s slaves escaped in 1781, women and children were also fleeing to British lines. The smallpox did not spare them. Two children, aged 9 and 10, died after leaving the plantation.

The State of Losses is a document that shows in human terms the incredible risks that African Americans took to try and escape their captivity during the American War of Independence. It is a reminder that Corwallis’ defeat at Yorktown wasn’t just a victory for the new United States, but a tragedy for the hundreds of slaves that had managed incredible odds to reach the British lines, only to succumb to disease or expulsion back to their masters in the end.

References

“Jefferson’s Statement of Losses to the British at His Cumberland Plantations in 1781, [27 January 1783],” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-06-02-0210. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 6, 21 May 1781–1 March 1784, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952, pp. 224–225.]

Maass, John R. The Road to Yorktown: Jefferson, Lafayette and the British Invasion of Virginia. Arcadia Publishing, 2015.

Urwin, Gregory JW. “When Freedom Wore a Red Coat: How Cornwallis’ 1781 Campaign Threatened the Revolution in Virginia.” Army History 68 (2008): 6-23.

Pybus, Cassandra. Epic journeys of freedom: runaway slaves of the American Revolution and their global quest for liberty. Beacon Press, 2006.