Just in passing, in the phone records thread, Donuel brings up an historical aspect which I think deserves its own thread: the fate of black slaves, at the end of the American Revolution, who fought on the British side.

He states that "over 100,000 slaves" were brought by the British back to the UK and schools for freed blacks were set up.

It is certainly true that, as Donuel says, Washington does not have clean hands in this--he pushed for the return of slaves who had taken refuge with the British.

However, I'd like to know Donuel's source for the 100,000 figure. And there are other questions.

According to a recent book by Henry Wiencek,-- An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves and the Creation of America, the story is, you might expect, complex. And only one major white figure does have clean hands. And he is neither American nor British, but Canadian. Probably born in the UK?

At the very last minute, Henry Laurens, former president of the Continental Congress, inserted a clause in the provisional treaty ending the American Revolution, a clause" that compelled the British to hand over any slaves who had taken refuge with them, though the British had promised freedom to those refugees." He "easily secured the approval of his fellow American negotiators and their British counterparts."

However, the British officer responsible for enforcing the treaty during the evaculation from New York was General Sir Guy Carleton, who had been governor of Quebec before the American Revolution.

Carlton decreed that he would evacuate those who had been in the British camp for at least a year. He stated that blacks had become free by the act of crossing into British lines. He had documents of protection issued to the blacks. When displayed, such a document would force a slave catcher--many had come to New York--to back off or face arrest by British forces.

Wieneck states that not 100,000 but about 13,000 to 14,000 blacks left with British troops when they sailed from Savannah, Charleston, and New York in 1783.

He further states "Not all were free. White loyalists who owned slaves were allowed to take their slaves with them, some British officers held slaves, and some American blacks who had joined the British for freedom were sold into slavery in the West Indies and East Florida."

In Charleston, as the ships were about to sail "panic set in. When it became apparent that the evacuation of all refugees could not be completed by the time the last ships had to sail, the British posted troops on the wharves to beat back refugees with cutlasses and bayonets. The most desperate dove into the water and clung to the sides of departing British longboats. One eyewitness wrote, 'to prevent this dangerous practice the fingers of some of them were chopped off.' " (Source: Wilson: Loyal Blacks)

Any further information on the topic?