The African-American Perspective on the American Revolution

Discuss the African-American perspective on the American Revolution and whether it was more “conservative” than “radical.”

Explore the nature of “freedom” and the contradictions of slavery and freedom in Revolutionary America from an African-American perspective. In attempting to determine the larger questions of whether or not the revolution/revolutionary era was actually more “conservative” than “radical” and in what ways (if any) African-Americans seemingly contradicted “American” notions of freedom, consider the following themes and aspects as they relate to African-American experiences during the period.