Collection 2: "A Soldier for the Crown" by Charles Johnson

Of course, in bondage to Master Selby there were no odds. Whichever way the dice fell or the cards came up, you began and ended your day a slave.

Grudgingly, he agreed to bring you along, despite your age and his declaration after your parents’ deaths that he’d keep you from harm.

Over the first months, then years of the seesawing war, you, Titus, and Caesar served His Majesty’s army in more capacities than you had fingers on the hand: as orderlies to the white officers, laborers, cooks, foragers, and as foot soldiers who descended upon farms abandoned by their white owners, burning the enemy’s fortifications and plundering plantations for much-needed provisions...

Over the first months, then years of the seesawing war, you, Titus, and Caesar served His Majesty’s army in more capacities than you had fingers on the hand: as orderlies to the white officers, laborers, cooks, foragers, and as foot soldiers who descended upon farms abandoned by their white owners, burning the enemy’s fortifications and plundering plantations for much-needed provisions...

Or perhaps you and Caesar might switch sides, deserting to the ranks of General Washington who, pressured for manpower, belatedly reversed his opposition to Negroes fighting in the Continental Army.

And then there was that magnificent Declaration penned by Jefferson, proclaiming that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” words you’d memorized after hearing them.

And then there was that magnificent Declaration penned by Jefferson, proclaiming that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” words you’d memorized after hearing them.

...Camden, where your side scattered poorly trained regulars led by General Gates, then liberated slaves who donned their masters’ fancy clothing and powdered wigs and followed along behind Gates as his men pressed on...

But, miraculously, as the war began to wind down, you were given the elusive, long-coveted British pass.

Once your ship lands, and you find a home, you will frame this precious deed of manumission.