This is a brief post on the circumstances that led slaves in the US to become black soldiers who fought with the British in the 1812 war, before settling in Trinidad where they created the community that came to be known as Merikins, of which Althea McNish's family is a part.
18 June 20222
The information in the post comes from the publication
The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772–1832, by
Alan Taylor. This book won the Pulitzer Prize.
In pages 41-48, Professor Taylor explains a prime motive for slaves to join the British armies in the 1812 war, namely, their families were being divided by the growing practice in Virginia of selling or renting out slaves, which increased markedly after laws were passed to end primogeniture and entails. These laws were meant to break up large estates and encourage greater equality among whites, but had the devastating effect of tearing slave families apart. Report of one slave woman leaping from a window in her desire to remain with her family and breaking her spine so that she suffered permanent paralysis. Entails of estates abolished in 1776 and primogeniture inheritance abolished in 1785.
Background summary on the 1812 war. British were fighting the French and Napoleon, then blocked US trading ships. The British also found it strategically convenient to support abolition, so came into conflict with American slaveowners. Supported black militia in the West Indies, thought Trinidad ideal for establishing black military outpost. Clashes, including forcing white Americans to serve on British naval ships, led US president to declare commencement of 1812 war. Slaves saw the British as liberators, were useful since they new the lay of the land in Virginia and provided useful info to British naval officers.
Page 126, After commenting on the Royal Navy's need for enormous numbers of sailors, Taylor states: "Many British sailors evaded naval service by seeking berths in the booming American merchant marine. Because the United States remained neutral in the global war, American merchants picked up trade on routes too dangerous for French shipping. By evading the British blockade of France and her colonies, the American neutral trade benefited Napoleon at the expense of the British Empire."
Professor Taylor's book explains that the British then took to blockading US trading ships in retaliation, as well as to recover absconding sailors. There were also the issues related to the United States' encroachment on Canada that Britain was also fighting. The British navy began to patrol the coast of the US with a view to intimidating them, as well as making raids to punish them. But landing on the shores was problematic for the British who had only a hazy idea of what the lay of the land was like. When the slaves, whose nocturnal roamings gave them an excellent knowledge of the land, began to escape to them, they received needed help.
Hence, they decided to woo the slaves with promises of land in the West Indies, which Althea McNish's forebears took up.
Page 169. 'To obtain black recruits, [Vice Admiral] Cochrane had to commit to their future as free men. On April 2, he addressed a cleverly worded proclamation to “all those who may be disposed to emigrate from the United States…with their Families.” He promised to honor “their choice of either entering into His Majesty’s Sea or Land forces or being sent as FREE[emphasis his] Settlers to the British Possessions in North America or the West Indies, where they will meet with all due encouragement.”' Avoided using the words slaves that might suggest he was promoting slave revolt.
Page 170. "Making a virtue of necessity, the commanders recognized that the runaways offered invaluable local knowledge and potential as sailors and marines…the admirals gradually embraced the many black refugees, including women and children. ..By their courage and persistence, and numbers, the runaways enabled the British to adopt a new, far more aggressive strategy for 1814. Black initiative transformed the British conduct of the war in the Chesapeake."
“In early 1813 the Royal Navy officers did not intend to emancipate more than a few slave, but scores of Tidewater slaves acted as if the British were liberators, escaping to them in stolen canoes and boats. Put on the spot, the naval officers took in the runaways: reluctantly at first but with growing zeal over time. The officers warmed to their new role as liberators…By the end of 1813 the naval commanders also realized that the blacks could provide invaluable services to the British campaign. The runaways had made themselves essential to the officers’ self-image and to their drive to humble the Americans along the shores of the Chesapeake."
The following quotes from this book show the importance that runaway slaves attached to freeing their entire family when they fled their masters.
Page 199. “When a lone man escaped, he often returned to retrieve his wife and children”..“To retain black men, the British needed to help the initail runaways recover their families.”
Page 200. “Often the second stage of an escape assumed a larger scale, as the pioneers returned to recruit entire slave quarters or neighborhoods to follow them back to a warship. The British assisted such large-scale escapes by secretly landing black men at night and arranging to pick them up again, along with their kin and friends, a few nights later at a particular point or beach.” “These group escapes required considerable planning to unite people from disparate farms and to secure enough canoes or a big enough boat. The plotters carefully gathered up prized possessions including clothes and Bibles.”
Page 203. “The British incursion enabled many Tidewater slaves to reconstitute families that had been divided by sale, inheritance and rental.” The author then gives a number of examples of a slave on one farm escaping and then returning with British officers to free spouse and children that were on a different farm or farms.
My thoughts on the quotes: So at the heart of slaves' desire to flee slavery was a longing to hold their families together, which coincided nicely with the British need for reinforcements and intelligence in their protracted hostilities against the US and, at a remove, France.