Of the ride of Paul Revere and William Dawes, the Times said, “History seems to leave no doubt about one thing; Paul Revere and William Dawes were dispatched on their history-making rides on different routes from Boston to Lexington and Concord. There was nothing in the plan of the patriots who sent them calculated to call out the Minute Men, cause immediate resistance to the British forces and precipiate war. They were sent out quietly to warn Hancock to flee and escape military arrest and also to tell the patriots of those towns to hide their military stores.”
One item the Americans wished particularly to keep out of the hands of the British was rum. The British were seizing all they could of it not only to hurt America’s slave trade but because rum was then an important item in the British soldier’s ration. Now it is significant that Revere’s first stop was at the home of one of the biggest distillers, Isaac Hall, who was also captain of the Medford Minute Men. Frank W. Blair (New York Times, May 2, 1925) thinks that Hall gave Revere a shot of rum that really sped him on his way. Justin Winsor, foremost American historian of his time, says that the popular version of Revere’s ride “paid little attention to the exactness of fact.” Hall was what we would call a bootlegger.
In plain language, therefore, it was the profit from the sale of Africans and the wealth they produced that was the underlying cause of the Revolution. In short, had there been no Africa, the United States might still be attached to Britain as Canada which is older than New England. Or if America did win independence might it not have been delayed like Mexico and Brazil?
Of course, this will sound preposterous to most. But suppose the Americans hadn’t discovered Africa and the Africans as a source of wealth and had remained a poor colony would Britain have singled them out for such crushing taxation? And even if she did would America have been financially strong enough to beat England? The wealth of most of the New England families was founded on the slave trade. John Hancock, great patriot, made his fortune as a slave smuggler. F. W. Taussig in “Rum, Romance and Rebellion,” names several of these families. Colonel Isaac Royall, who gave two thousand acres of land to Harvard made his money that way, too. (Journal of Commerce, Oct. 6, 1865).
ONE ENGLISH VIEW WHY AMERICANS REBELLED
One popular English view was that the Americans did not rebel principally because of taxes but from the arrogance and conceit bred into them from slavery of the blacks. They compensated this way for their own lowly, despised origin, it was said, and had grown so overbearing, so quick to anger and violence, they could no longer submit to authority. Edmund Burke, a great friend of America, himself, gave this as one cause. In his speech “Conciliation with with America” he said that “the vast multitude of slaves” had made “the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty. Freedom is to them (the Americans) not only an enjoyment but a kind of rank.”31
This pride was sharpened by the contempt that aristocratic English officials had for native-born Americans and their frequent reference to “convict” origin. Beverly mentions some, Governor Nichols of Virginia, in particular. Nichols called Virginians “Dogs and their wives, Bitches.”32
Some Americans as Colonel William Byrd of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton did think that the presence of Negroes had made Americans arrogant. Byrd, in a letter to Lord Egmont, July 12, 1736, said the presence of “these Aethiopians amongst us … blow up the pride and ruin the industry of our White People who seeing a rank of poor Creature below them detest work for fear it should make them look like slaves. It disposes them to pilfer, who account it more like Gentlemen to steal than to dirty their hands with Labour of any kind.”33
Thomas Jefferson, who once had to rebuke his grandson, Jefferson Randolph, for conduct of this sort, wrote, “The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism. Our children see this and learn to imitate it; and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny can not but be stamped by it. …”34
Hamilton said, “The contempt we have been taught to entertain for the blacks makes us fancy many things that are founded neither on reason nor experience.”
One English visitor, Andrew Burnaby in 1759, made much the same observation. He said of the Virginia whites, “Their authority over their slaves renders them vain and imperious and entire strangers to that elegance of sentiment which is so peculiarly characteristic of refined, polished nations. Their ignorance of mankind and of learning exposes them to many errors and prejudices, especially in regard to Indians and Negroes.”35
NOTES
1. I’lnegalite des Races Humaines, Vol. 4 p. 313, 1853.
2. Edinburgh Rev. Vol. 33, Jan. to May 1820, in his review of Seybert’s book on America. McSparran wrote, “America Dissected,” in 1753. Gustavus Myers discussed these detractions in “America Strikes Back.”
3. Captain John Smith (1580-1631) wrote, “So great was our famine that a savage we slew and buried, the poorer sort took him up again and ate him; and so did divers ones another boiled and stewed with herbs. And one amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered her and had eaten part of her.” The General Historie of Virginia. The Fourth Booke, p. 294 (1606-1625). Neill E. D., quotes the Virginia Assembly of 1623 in its complaint against Governor Thomas Smythe, “One man killed his wife to eat for which he was burned. Many fed on corpses. “Terre Mariae (Maryland), p. 30. 1867. Other instances of eating corpses and killing Indians and eating them occurred as late as 1846. The Donner party, lost in the Sierras in the dead of winter, was driven to this. State of California Bulletin. The Donner Party Tragedy, pp. 10, 11; Croy, Homer. Wheels West. Stewart G. R. Ordeal by Hunger: Story of the Donner Party, pp. 132-35. 1960. This is significant because one great charge against Negroes was that their ancestors were cannibals.
4. Case of the Northern Colonies, p. 3, 1731.
5. Works of John Adams, Vol. 10, p. 345 ed. by C. F. Adams.
6. Helps, Sir A. Life of Las Casas, p. 67. 1868. Also Encyc. Brit.
7. Hist. Gen. de los Hechos de los Castillanos. Dec. 1, lib. 2, c. 5; Dec. 2, lib. 2, c. 8.
8. Dec. 2, lib. 3. c. 14.
9. Virginia Calendar of State Papers, Vol. 1, p. 206.
10. Quoted by Bancroft, G. Hist. of the U. S., Vol. 4, p 233, 1882.
11. Correspondence of Patrick Henry, V. 1, 3, 1881. Ed. by W. W. Henry.
12. Biography of Benj. Franklin, Vol. 1, p. 2151. 1887.
13a. Travels in North America, etc. Vol. 2, p. 290. 1799.
13b. Johnson, A., Georgia As Colony and State, p. 71. 1938.
13c. Colonial Records of Georgia, Vol. 5, 1738-44, pp. 452, 476, 605.
13d. European Settlements in North America, p. 212. 1762.
14. Quoted by Coulter, Short History of Georgia, p. 64, 1933.
15. Va. Maga. of Hist., Vol. 23, p. 410.
16. U. S. Constit. Convention, 1787, July 11, Vol. 1, pp. 580, 592.
17. Slave Ships and