March 20, 1779 – George Washington Writes About the Issue of Arming Slaves to Aid in the American Revolution

On this day in history, George Washington sent a letter to Henry Laurens, serving at that time as President of the Continental Congress. Laurens was a slaveholder, while his son John, one of Washington’s aides-de-camp, was famously opposed to slavery. In fact, John pointed out, “We Americans at least in the Southern Colonies, cannot contend with a good Grace, for Liberty, until we shall have enfranchised our Slaves.”

A 1780 miniature portrait of Laurens, by Charles Willson Peale

John Laurens wanted to form a Black regiment to fight in the war, and sent a letter to Washington to that effect on March 16, 1779. The elder Laurens was against the idea, and had claimed in a letter to his son in 1776:

I told you in my last that I was going to Georgia. . . My negroes there, are all to a man, are strongly attached to me — so are all of mine in this country [South Carolina]; hitherto not one of them has attempted to desert; on the contrary, those who are more exposed hold themselves always ready to fly from the enemy in case of a sudden descent…You know, my dear son, I abhor slavery. I was born in a country where slavery had been established by British kings and parliaments, as well as by the laws of that country ages before my existence. I found the Christian religion and slavery growing under the same authority and cultivation. I nevertheless disliked it…I am not the man who enslaved them; they are indebted to English for that favour; nevertheless I am devising means for manumitting many of them, and for cutting off the entail of slavery. Great powers oppose me — the laws and customs of my country, my own and the avarice of my countrymen.”

(The elder Laurens was one of many founding fathers who claimed they hated slavery, but, well, that’s just the hand we were dealt, and besides, the slaves need us. . . )

Laurens depicted by Lemuel Francis Abbott, 1781 or 1784

In any event, in this letter to the father, Henry Laurens, Washington averred:

The policy of our arming Slaves is in my opinion a moot point, unless the enemy set the example, for should we begin to form Battalions of them I have not the smallest doubt (if the war is to be prosecuted) of their following us in it, and justifying the measure upon our own ground. The upshot then must be who can Arm fastest—and where are our Arms? besides I am not clear that a descrimination will not render Slavery more irksome to those who remain in it—Most of the good and evil things of this life are judged of by comparison, and I fear comparison in this Case will be productive of Much discontent in those who are held in servitude—but as this is a subject that has never employed much of my thoughts, these are no more than the first crude Ideas that have struck me upon the occasion.”

You can read Washington’s entire letter here.