Profs & Pints: (African) American Revolution

Profs and Pints presents: “(African) American Revolution,” a look at the role African Americans played in the nation’s fight for independence, with Richard Bell, associate professor of history at the University of Maryland.

As schoolchildren we’re taught that the American Revolution was about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But what did those words mean to black people caught up in that war? Just how revolutionary was the American Revolution for people of color, who faced oppression by whites on both sides of the conflict?

For many, it was the British who offered independence, promising freedom to black slaves who might be willing to desert their rebel masters and join the King’s regiments. Others, however, took up the American patriots’ cause, throwing themselves into the war effort with more enthusiasm and more on the line than many white colonists.

Come learn the stories of those on both sides. You’ll become deeply familiar with Crispus Attucks, who was slain in a hail of redcoat gunfire during the Boston Massacre, and hear about Harry Washington, the runaway slave from George Washington’s Mount Vernon who fled to British lines, served with a British artillery unit, and then sailed with the retreating redcoat army to Canada before heading off to Sierra Leone.

Such stories ask us to think about the states of the American Revolution from the black perspective. They also draw attention to the war’s mixed outcome for African Americans, as the patriot victory spurred the rise of the anti-slavery movement in northern states while helping to preserve plantation slavery in the south for generations to come.

Richard Bell, a scholar of the history and culture of the United States from 1750 to 1877 and a dedicated public historian, will captivate you in discussing this complex chapter of the nation’s history. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, save $2 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in.)