Summary
The year 1778 crystallized the revolutionary paradox of liberty: a war fought for independence and universal rights unfolded amid the legal existence of slavery and the promises of freedom to enslaved people who served militarily. Three landmark developments defined 1778’s slavery politics: Vermont’s constitution—the first to abolish slavery at founding—went into effect; Virginia banned foreign slave importation; and Rhode Island passed the Slave Enlistment Act, allowing enslaved people to fight for freedom with equal military compensation.
These measures, driven by military necessity, economic interest, and emerging enlightenment thought, marked the beginning of northern abolition movements while exposing the ideological chasm between Revolutionary rhetoric and southern practice. Enslaved people themselves seized the opening: thousands enlisted in Continental units or sought refuge with British forces, forcing both sides to negotiate freedom’s terms as a military currency.
Key Figures
- Thomas Jefferson — Drafted the Declaration of Independence (1776) asserting “all men are created equal” while enslaving over 600 people; as Governor of Virginia in 1778, he supported the ban on foreign slave importation, a compromise with his enslaved workforce rather than a step toward abolition.
- George Washington — Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army; initially opposed enlisting enslaved people but gradually permitted it as manpower shortages intensified.
- Henry Laurens — South Carolina merchant and Continental Congress President in 1778; privately opposed slavery but failed to act on his convictions, fearing southern political backlash.
- Marquis de Lafayette — French volunteer officer who privately opposed slavery and pressed Washington to allow Black enlistment; his advocacy shaped Continental Army policy.
- John Paul Jones — Naval commander who recruited Black sailors; approximately 20% of American naval crews were Black by 1778.
Events of 1778
Vermont’s Constitutional Abolition (Implementation)
Vermont’s 1777 Constitution, formally adopted and implemented in 1778, made Vermont the first jurisdiction in the Atlantic world to abolish slavery through constitutional law. Chapter I, Article I declared: “No male person, born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law, to serve any person, as a servant, slave or apprentice, after he arrives to the age of twenty-one years, nor female, in like manner, after she arrives to the age of eighteen years.”
Significance: Vermont’s move was symbolically revolutionary but practically limited. The wording was vague enough that enforcement was weak; slavery continued de facto in Vermont even after 1777, with estimates placing approximately 25 enslaved people in the state during the 1770s. Vermont’s constitution also pioneered near-universal male suffrage (removing property ownership requirements), extending voting rights to African American men—a radical step at the time.
Virginia Bans Foreign Slave Importation (1778)
In 1778, newly independent Virginia (under Governor Thomas Jefferson) banned the importation of enslaved people into the state, imposing fines of £1,000 on violators and declaring any enslaved person brought illegally into Virginia to be free. This was one of the first such bans in the Atlantic world from a slave-holding jurisdiction.
Motivation: Virginia’s motivation was complex. The state had an existing surplus of enslaved people (estimated at 500,000+ by the 1780s), and continued importation threatened to depress enslaved-person values. Jefferson and other Virginia slaveholders also invoked humanitarian concerns (slavery was “a trade of great inhumanity,” as Virginia’s 1772 petition to King George III stated), but the economic self-interest—protecting the value of their existing human capital—was paramount.
Significance: Virginia’s ban demonstrated how the Revolution shifted economic power to the states themselves. As an independent nation, Virginia could now pursue its own commercial interests without British merchant pressure. However, the ban did NOT challenge slavery’s legality; it merely restricted the supply of enslaved people through importation. Enslaved people already in Virginia remained enslaved, and southern slavery as an institution strengthened as it turned away from external supply toward natural reproduction.
Rhode Island Slave Enlistment Act (May 1778)
By 1778, manpower shortages in the Continental Army became acute. Enlistment bounties had risen dramatically, towns were running out of eligible white males, and the war effort faced collapse without more soldiers. Rhode Island took a radical step: the assembly passed legislation allowing enslaved people to enlist in the state’s military units, particularly the 1st Rhode Island Regiment.
The Terms: The Slave Enlistment Act stipulated that enslaved people accepted for military service would be “immediately discharged from the service of his master or mistress, and be absolutely free.” Enslaved recruits received:
- Immediate legal emancipation
- Equal pay as white soldiers (an extraordinary provision in 1778)
- Compensation to enslavers (up to $400 per enslaved person) to mollify slaveholder resistance
Composition: The 225-man 1st Rhode Island Regiment ultimately included approximately 140 Black soldiers, the highest proportion of any Continental Army unit. The regiment saw significant action in northern campaigns and marched south to participate in the victory at Yorktown (1781).
Significance: Rhode Island’s enlistment act transformed slavery from a legal status into a negotiable transaction, at least temporarily. It acknowledged that Black soldiers had not only military value but also claims to freedom—a radical concession. Other northern states soon followed: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and others permitted Black enlistment under similar terms.
Broader Enslaved Participation in 1778
Across the war, thousands of enslaved people sought freedom through military service on both the American and British sides. Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation (November 1775) had promised freedom to enslaved people who fled to British forces; by 1778, several thousand formerly enslaved people served in British units. The Continental Army, initially resistant, gradually accepted Black soldiers and sailors. Approximately 5,000 Black soldiers fought in the Continental Army overall; by 1778, Black sailors made up roughly 20% of American naval crews.
The Paradox Exposed
1778 was the year the Revolutionary contradiction became undeniable. The Declaration of Independence (1776) asserted that “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable Rights” to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”—principles written by enslaved-holder Jefferson and endorsed by enslaved-holder Washington. Yet the same Revolutionary army and government that fought for these universal principles continued to enslave people and profited from slavery’s labor.
The northern measures of 1778—Vermont’s constitution, Rhode Island’s enlistment act, even Virginia’s importation ban—were steps toward eventual abolition, but they were also compromises born of necessity (manpower shortages, economic self-interest) rather than moral awakening. Southern slaveholders, with no manpower crisis and a plantation economy entirely dependent on enslaved labor, rejected even these modest measures. Slavery remained embedded in the South’s economic and political systems, and the Revolution’s failure to resolve slavery at its founding set the stage for the Civil War (1861–1865), nearly a century later.
Significance
The events of 1778 revealed slavery’s centrality to the Revolutionary paradox: a nation born from ideals of universal freedom preserved and protected slavery for those who fought for independence. Yet 1778 also marked the beginning of northern abolition, the military recognition of Black soldiers’ claims to freedom, and the ideological delegitimization of slavery among enlightened thinkers. The contradiction was laid bare, but unresolved—a burden that would haunt the United States for nearly another century.
The 1st Rhode Island Regiment in Combat (1778)
The 1st Rhode Island Regiment — the Continental Army’s most integrated unit — saw significant combat action in 1778, providing a critical test of Black soldiers’ military effectiveness and the Slave Enlistment Act’s practical consequences.
Battle of Rhode Island (August 29, 1778):
On August 29, 1778, the 1st Rhode Island Regiment fought in the Battle of Rhode Island — one of the largest engagements in New England. The unit held a critical defensive position on the American left flank, repelling three assaults by British and Hessian forces during a contested American retreat from Newport:
- The regiment faced approximately 1,500 Hessian soldiers in three successive charges
- Black and Narragansett soldiers in the regiment held the line under sustained attack, preventing the American withdrawal from becoming a rout
- Continental commanders praised the regiment’s discipline; Colonel Christopher Greene’s official report credited the unit’s performance as decisive to the army’s escape
Colonel Greene, commanding the regiment, wrote that his unit’s stand was “the most honorable moment” in the Rhode Island campaign. The Battle of Rhode Island thus demonstrated that Black soldiers, given equal compensation and legal freedom as promised by the Slave Enlistment Act, would fight — and fight effectively.
The regiment went on to serve throughout the war, fighting at the Siege of Yorktown (October 1781) and remaining in service until June 1783. See also: Battle of Rhode Island.
Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment and the British Alternative (1775–1778)
While the Continental Army’s integration was slow and contested, Britain had moved earlier and more decisively to recruit enslaved people — motivated by military necessity rather than principle.
Dunmore’s Proclamation (November 7, 1775):
Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation promising freedom to “all indented servants, Negroes, or others (appertaining to Rebels)” who escaped their enslavers and joined British forces. Within weeks:
- 800+ formerly enslaved people joined Dunmore’s forces, forming the Ethiopian Regiment — uniformed Black soldiers who wore chest badges reading “Liberty to Slaves”
- The regiment engaged in combat operations in Virginia in late 1775 and early 1776, including the Battle of Great Bridge (December 9, 1775), where they suffered significant losses
- Disease (smallpox) devastated the Ethiopian Regiment; by early 1776 only ~150 combatants remained of the original 800+
By 1778:
The Ethiopian Regiment had been dissolved, but Britain continued receiving formerly enslaved people throughout the war. By 1778, several thousand formerly enslaved people served in various capacities with British forces — as soldiers, spies, laborers, pilots, and guides. The British Black Pioneers unit operated in the South as skilled laborers and military engineers.
The Asymmetry:
Dunmore’s 1775 proclamation reached Virginia’s enslaved population years before Rhode Island’s 1778 act reached its enslaved residents. Britain consistently moved faster than the American revolutionaries on Black recruitment — not from abolition principle but from military calculation. The irony was profound: the Crown that American revolutionaries claimed was enslaving them (metaphorically) offered literal freedom to enslaved people faster than the Continental Congress did.
Enslaved People’s Agency — Navigating Competing Offers
Historians have increasingly emphasized that enslaved people were not passive recipients of either British or American freedom offers — they made calculated choices, gathered intelligence, and exploited the war’s chaos to pursue their own liberation.
Strategies Employed by Enslaved People in 1778:
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Seeking British lines: In Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, thousands of enslaved people escaped to British positions, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles through hostile territory. British commanders offered protection in exchange for labor and military service; some sought freedom through continued flight after British forces moved on.
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Self-purchase and manumission: Quaker communities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey increased manumissions in 1778, influenced by wartime religious reflection. Some enslaved people accumulated money from informal labor and purchased their freedom during the war’s disruption of the plantation economy.
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Military enlistment under false identity: In northern states, some enslaved people enlisted in Continental units without their enslavers’ permission, claiming free status. Military service — legally — made it difficult to re-enslave them after the war.
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Strategic loyalty: Some enslaved people remained on plantations, gathering intelligence and passing information to both sides, while cultivating relationships that might leverage freedom. In 1778 Virginia, plantation networks served as informal intelligence circuits for both American and British forces.
Scale of Movement:
The Revolutionary War produced the largest movement of formerly enslaved people in American history before the Civil War. Historians estimate that between 80,000 and 100,000 enslaved people escaped, sought British protection, or died in the war’s chaos — representing approximately 20% of the total enslaved population of 450,000. This mass movement constituted what historian Simon Schama called “the first emancipation” — not legislated, but lived.
The Southern Divide: Why Slavery’s Abolition Failed in 1778
Vermont and Rhode Island’s 1778 measures toward freedom reflected a northern reality that southern states systematically rejected. Understanding why requires examining the economics.
Southern Dependency on Enslaved Labor:
| Colony | Estimated Enslaved Population (1778) | % of Total Population |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia | ~200,000 | ~40% |
| South Carolina | ~75,000 | ~60% |
| North Carolina | ~50,000 | ~35% |
| Georgia | ~15,000 | ~40% |
Southern Revolutionary leaders — Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Laurens — enslaved people themselves. Their plantations’ productivity depended entirely on coerced labor. More critically, the southern economy’s crop exports (tobacco, rice, indigo) financed the war effort; any disruption to enslaved labor threatened the economic base supporting Continental Army operations.
Henry Laurens’s Silence:
Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress in 1778, privately called slavery a “wicked practice” and in a 1776 letter to his son John expressed desire for abolition. Yet when Continental Army officer John Laurens (his son) proposed arming 3,000 enslaved South Carolinians in 1779, Henry Laurens declined to support the measure, and South Carolina’s legislature rejected it decisively. Political survival in a slave economy required silence about slavery’s morality. See also: Henry Laurens.
See Also
- Battle of Rhode Island — the 1st Rhode Island Regiment’s combat debut on August 29, 1778
- Ethan Allen and the Vermont Republic — Vermont’s constitutional context
- Indigenous Nations Diplomacy in 1778 — parallel story of marginalized peoples navigating Revolutionary choices
- Women’s Agency in 1778 — another group navigating Revolutionary ideals vs. legal status
- Henry Laurens — Continental Congress President who privately opposed slavery but avoided action
- Marquis de Lafayette — French officer who advocated for Black enlistment in the Continental Army
- George Washington — Commander-in-Chief whose evolving position on Black enlistment shaped policy
- Valley Forge Encampment — the military crucible where Black and white soldiers trained together under von Steuben
Sources
- Slavery and the American Revolution, Encyclopedia.com
- Vermont 1777: Early Steps Against Slavery, National Museum of African American History and Culture
- History of slavery in Vermont, Wikipedia
- 10 Facts: Black Patriots in the American Revolution, American Battlefield Trust
- African Americans in the Revolutionary War, George Washington’s Mount Vernon
- Enslaved Soldiers in the Revolutionary War, Northeast Slavery Record Index
- Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment, American Battlefield Trust
- Battle of Rhode Island, American Battlefield Trust