Slavery and the Revolution

A few years back, a debate over the causes of the American Revolution broke through to mainstream discourse. It was triggered by the claim in the New York Times’ 1619 Project that slavery was “one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence.” Several conservative pundits and prominent historians responded that protecting slavery was NOT a central motivator of the war for independence, and that if anything, America’s founding documents were anti-slavery milestones that paved the way for the institution’s abolition. 

The debate quickly hardened along culture war battle lines. But this was less a new attempt at politically-motivated revisionism, and more an expression of a longstanding interpretive debate among historians. A mid-20th century consensus held that slavery was only a modest factor in the founding, while much of the scholarship conducted over the past twenty years has understood the defense and entrenchment of slavery to be central to the conflict. Scholars in this historiographical strain make the case that the rhetoric of race — including the fear of slave rebellion — was crucial to colonists finding common ground needed to ban together against the British; African Americans’ struggle for freedom forced both sides of the conflict to shift their military strategies; and the Constitutional Convention’s famous compromises were not so much attempts to balance pro- and anti-slavery delegates’ priorities, but rather the convoluted results of efforts to deliver on their promises of republican government in a nation where varied slaveholding practices complicated every aspect of representation. 

Below, you’ll find writing about the varied ways slaveholders and enslaved people navigated the upheaval of war and shaped the nation’s founding.

This collection was featured in Continuum, the joint newsletter of Bunk and HNN, on April 15, 2026: https://tinyurl.com/Continuum4-15-26