Slavery Impact On The American Revolution

Register to read the introduction… Although, the northern states had already abolished the slave trade, slave trades was still an ongoing battle in the southern states. The Revolution helped inspire the African Americans to fight for equality, freedom and independence from their owners. Slaves began to petition Congress for their freedom. Slaves pointed out the contradiction of the American ideal of liberty and equality and the reality of slavery. Slaves began to defend their freedom against their masters. In 1980, a man by the name of Gabriel, led a group of slaves to unite and attempt to overcome the city of Richmond. This act was influenced in part by slave rebellion of that began in St. Dominique. During the Revolutionary War, many slave-owners realized the hypocrisy of owning slaves while fighting for their own freedom so they freed their slaves. Thomas Jefferson estimated about 30,000 slaves took advantage of how people were distracted by the war and ran away from their master. Despite the efforts of African American soldiers, slavery continued to be a conflict between the whites and African Americans. African Americans had hoped that after the Revolutionary War, the white would consider them to be “real people.” However, that wasn’t the case because slavery still continued (Palmer, …show more content…
However, even after their loyal service during the war, that wasn’t the case. The war did inspire women to become more independent. This led women to demand equality and equal opportunities. Pre-Revolution, women were looked as inferior to men. This was especially the case against married women. Married women had very little rights as all of their rights were passed to their husbands. After the Revolutionary War, the status of married woman changed. The courts now required the husbands to provide for her appropriately. If the husband was unable to provide for his wife, woman now had the power to sue their husbands and win support from the courts. While waiting for a court decision, the woman had the opportunity to run up charges at local stores. The courts than required the husbands to pay these charges. The judges called this doctrine of necessities. This prevented the men from financially neglecting his wife. Unmarried women were then given the opportunity to live wherever they pleased and support themselves with any occupation that did not require an education. Single women were now able to enter into a contract, own property and buy and sell estates. As long as they were single, women were able to act as guardians and sign wills. Another major change for women after the Revolution War was that it allowed the inheritances from parents to be equally be divided amongst the children