wallis's tion. Lord Cornwallis also issued a proclamation encouraging Lord Cornthe slaves to join the British Army; but it is well known Proclamathat no regard for their welfare prompted his action, and but little kindness was shown by him to the slaves who deserted their masters, or who were compelled to leave them. A letter from Mr. Jefferson to Dr. Gordon, written several years after the war was closed, contains a passage which shows how that statesman regarded the treatment of his own negroes. 66 Thomas to Doctor Lord Cornwallis destroyed all my growing crops of corn and tobacco; he burned all my barns, containing the same articles of the Jefferson last year, having first taken what corn he wanted; he used, as was to Gordon. be expected, all my stock of cattle, sheep, and hogs, for the sustenance of his army, and carried off all the horses capable of service; of those too young for service he cut the throats; and he burned all the fences on the plantation, so as to leave it an absolute waste. He carried off also about thirty slaves. Had this been to give them freedom, he would have done right; but it was to consign them to inevitable death from the small-pox and putrid fever, then raging in his camp. This I knew afterwards to be the fate of twenty-seven of them. I never had news of the remaining three, but presume they shared the same fate. When I say that Lord Cornwallis did all this, I do not mean that he carried about the torch in his own hands, but that it was all done under his eye; the situation of the house, in which he was, commanding a view of every part of the plantation, so that he must have seen every fire. I relate these things on my own knowledge, in a great degree, as I was on the ground soon after he left it. He treated the rest of the neighborhood somewhat in the same style, but not with that spirit of total extermination with which he seemed to rage over my possessions. Wherever he went, the dwelling-houses were plundered of every thing which could be carried off. Lord Cornwallis's character in England would forbid the belief that he shared in the plunder; but that his table was served with the plate thus pillaged from private houses, can be proved by many hundred eye-witnesses. From an estimate I made at that time, on the best information I could collect, I supposed the State of Virginia lost, under Lord Cornwallis's hand, that year, about thirty thousand slaves; and that, of these, twenty-seven thousand died of the General Lincoln. James small-pox and camp-fever; and the rest were partly sent to the West Indies, and exchanged for rum, sugar, coffee, and fruit; and partly sent to New York, from whence they went, at the peace, either to Nova Scotia or to England. From this last place, I believe, they have been lately sent to Africa. History will never relate the horrors committed by the British Army in the Southern States of America."— Jefferson's Works, vol. ii. p. 426. It is very evident from this statement, that the distrust and fears on the part of the negroes, in regard to the promises of the British officers, Dunmore, Clinton, and Cornwallis, were well founded. In striking contrast to their treatment of the slaves is the noble sentiment of Jefferson, himself a severe sufferer from the conduct of Cornwallis: "Had this been to give them freedom, he would have done right.” In the autumn of the year 1780, Colonel Laurens was sent on an important mission to France. The policy which he so warmly advocated in his own State and in Georgia was not, however, neglected during his absence. General Lincoln repeatedly and earnestly implored that the army in the South might be strengthened in this, which seemed to be the only practicable way. In a letter to Governor Rutledge, dated Charleston, March 13, 1780, he says: "Give me leave to add once more, that I think the measure of raising a black corps a necessary one; that I have great reason to believe, if permission is given for it, that many men would soon be obtained. I have repeatedly urged this matter, not only because Congress have recommended it, and because it thereby becomes my duty to attempt to have it executed, but because my own mind suggests the utility and importance of the measure, as the safety of the town makes it necessary." Manuscript Letter. Mr. Madison, in a letter to Joseph Jones, dated November 20, 1780, thus advocated the policy of freeing and arming the negroes: "Yours of the 18th came yesterday. I am glad to find the Legislature persist in their resolution to recruit their line of the army for Madison. the war; though, without deciding on the expediency of the mode James under their consideration, would it not be as well to liberate and make soldiers at once of the blacks themselves, as to make them instruments for enlisting white soldiers? It would certainly be more consonant with the principles of liberty, which ought never to be lost sight of in a contest for liberty: and, with white officers and a majority of white soldiers, no imaginable danger could be feared from themselves, as there certainly could be none from the effect of the example on those who should remain in bondage; experience having shown that a freedman immediately loses all attachment and sympathy with his former fellow-slaves." Madison Papers, p. 68. On the 28th of February, 1781, General Greene, who was then in North Carolina, wrote to Washington: “The enemy have ordered two regiments of negroes to be imme- General diately embodied, and are drafting a great proportion of the young Greene. men of that State [South Carolina], to serve during the war." Sparks's Correspondence of the American Revolution, vol. iii. p. 246. Colonel Laurens, some time after his return from France, resumed his efforts to induce the slaveholders of South Carolina and Georgia to allow their negroes to enlist as soldiers in the Continental Army; and, although he found that "truth and philosophy had gained some ground," he was compelled to say that "the single voice of reason was drowned by the howlings of a triple-headed monster, in which prejudice, avarice, and pusillanimity were united." Two letters, written by him only a few months before he laid down his life for his country in battle, contain further evidence of his faithful efforts, and a sad account of the manner in which his purposes were defeated. Both of these letters were addressed to Washington. The first was dated May 19, 1782. Laurens to ton. “The plan which brought me to this country was urged with all Colonel the zeal which the subject inspired, both in our Privy Council and WashingAssembly; but the single voice of reason was drowned by the howlings of a triple-headed monster, in which prejudice, avarice, and pusillanimity were united. It was some degree of consolation to me, however, to perceive that truth and philosophy had gained some Colonel ton. Washing ton to Col. ground; the suffrages in favor of the measure being twice as numerous as on a former occasion. Some hopes have been lately given me from Georgia; but I fear, when the question is put, we shall be outvoted there with as much disparity as we have been in this country. "I earnestly desire to be where any active plans are likely to be executed, and to be near your Excellency on all occasions in which my services can be acceptable. The pursuit of an object which, I confess, is a favorite one with me, because I always regarded the interests of this country and those of the Union as intimately connected with it, has detached me more than once from your family; but those sentiments of veneration and attachment with which your Excellency has inspired me, keep me always near you, with the sincerest and most zealous wishes for a continuance of your happiness and glory." Sparks's Correspondence of the American Revolution, vol. iii. p. 506. The last letter was dated June 12, 1782; and from it we learn that his hope of accomplishing something in this way clung to him to the last. "The approaching session of the Georgia Legislature, and the encouragement given me by Governor Howley, who has a decisive influence in the counsels of that country, induce me to remain in this quarter for the purpose of taking new measures on the subject of our black levies. The arrival of Colonel Baylor, whose seniority entitles him to the command of the light troops, affords me ample leisure for pursuing the business in person; and I shall do it with all the tenacity of a man making a last effort on so interesting an occasion." Sparks's Correspondence of the American Revolution, vol. iii. p. 515. Washington, however, seems to have lost all faith in the Laurens. patriotism of the men who continued to refuse aid to their suffering country in the only practicable way which had been suggested. He has seldom said any thing so severe as the following words, in his reply to the first of the above let ters: "I must confess that I am not at all astonished at the failure of your plan. That spirit of freedom, which, at the commencement ton to Colo of this contest, would have gladly sacrificed every thing to the attain- Washingment of its object, has long since subsided, and every selfish passion nel Lauhas taken its place. It is not the public but private interest which rens. influences the generality of mankind; nor can the Americans any longer boast an exception. Under these circumstances, it would rather have been suprising if you had succeeded; nor will you, I fear, have better success in Georgia."— Sparks's Washington, vol. iii. pp. 322, 323. Hum The friend and associate of Colonel Laurens, as a member Colonel of Washington's family, and a fellow-soldier in more than one phreys. battle, Colonel David Humphreys, gave the sanction of his name and the influence of his popularity to the raising of colored troops in Connecticut. "In November, 1782, he was, by resolution of Congress, commissioned as a Lieutenant-Colonel, with order that his commission should bear date from the 23d of June, 1780, when he received his appointment as aid-de-camp to the Commander-in-chief. He had, when in active service, given the sanction of his name and influence in the establishment of a company of colored infantry, attached to Meigs', afterwards Butler's, regiment, in the Connecticut line. He continued to be the nominal captain of that company until the establishment of peace.” — Biographical Sketch in "The National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans." more. Lord Dunmore's efforts to secure the services of negroes, Lord Dunat the commencement of the Revolutionary War, are well known; his proclamation, and the action of the Virginia Convention upon it, having been published at the time, and the matter having occasioned much comment since. By the courtesy of Mr. Bancroft, who has kindly put into my hands the unpublished original manuscript of the following letter and "sketch," and also a copy of Lord Dunmore's private letter to Sir Henry Clinton enclosing them, I am now enabled to present the views of his Lordship on the subject seven years later, and just before the close of hostilities. |