d his freedom by entering the American army; at the South, only by
entering the British army, which was joined by more than fifteen
thousand colored men. Jefferson says 30,000 negroes from Virginia alone
went to the British army. I make the digression simply to assert that
had the colored men at the South possessed the same opportunity as those
at the North, of enlisting in the American army, a large force of
colored men would have been in the field, fighting for America's
independence. Of the services of the little band, scattered as they were
throughout the army, two or three in a company composed of whites, a
squad in a regiment, a few companies with an army, made it quite
impossible for their record, beyond this, to be distinct from the
organizations they were attached to. However, enough has been culled
from the history of that conflict, to show that they bore a brave part
in the struggle which wrested the colonies from the control of Great
Britain, and won for themselves and offspring, freedom, which many of
them never enjoyed. I have studiously avoided narrating the conduct of
those who cast their fortune with the British, save those who went with
Lord Dunmore, for reasons too obvious to make mention of.

The sentiments of a majority of the people of the colonies were in full
accord with the declaration opposing slavery, and they sought to give it
supremacy by their success in the conflict. Slavery, which barred the
entrance to the army of the colored man at the South, had been denounced
by the colonist before the adoption of the articles of confederation,
and was maintained solely by local regulations. As early as 1774, all
the colonies had agreed to, and their representatives to the congress
had signed, the articles of the Continental Association, by which it was
agreed, "that we will neither import nor purchase any slave imported
after the first day of December next, (1774), after which we will wholly
discontinue the slave trade, and will neither be concerned in it
ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or
manufactories to those who are concerned in it." Georgia not being
represented in this Congress, consequently was not in the Association,
but as soon as her Provincial Congress assembled in July, 1775, it
passed the following resolutions:

"_I._--_Resolved_, That this Congress will adopt and carry
into execution all and singular the measures and
recommendations of the