USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Lord Dunmore, serving as Royal Governor of Virginia in 1775, issued a proclamation declaring that any slave who escaped and joined the British Army would earn their freedom.

Detailed explanation-2: -The British promised freedom to enslaved people who left their Patriot masters to side with the British. In New York City, which the British occupied, thousands of refugee enslaved people migrated there to gain freedom. The British created a registry of people who had escaped slavery, called the Book of Negroes.

Detailed explanation-3: -Enslaved men of color supported the British cause for a number of reasons. First, many slaves believed slavery had already been abolished in Great Britain. In 1772, James Somerset, an enslaved man owned by customs official Charles Stuart, brought suit against his owner in a London court in order to obtain his freedom.

Detailed explanation-4: -The British left a number of Black people behind as they retreated, many of whom were recaptured into slavery. Other Black Loyalists were resettled in Florida, the West Indies, the future Upper and Lower Canada and the present-day provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick .

Detailed explanation-5: -Both free and enslaved men fought for American independence and for the British attempt to squash the rebellion. Most black Americans supported the British for reasons we know, but many served with the Continental Army because they believed in what the revolution presumably stood for.