In 1786 an act was passed to emancipate a negro slave who had acted as a spy for Lafayette. This practice was not perhaps wholly confined to the South. Although Massachusetts abolished slavery in 1783, her territory was, it seems, still subject to slave hunts, and her negro soldiers to the insult of an attempt to re-enslave them. But Gen. Washington, though himself a slave-holder, regarded the rights of those who fought for liberty and national independence, with too much sacredness and the honor of the country with too much esteem, to permit them to be set aside, merely to accommodate those who had rendered the nation's cause no help or assistance. Gen. Putnam received the following letter, which needs no explanation:
Headquarters, Feb. 2, 1783.
"Sir:—Mr. Hobby having claimed as his property a negro man now serving in the Massachusetts Regiment, you will please to order a court of inquiry, consisting of five as respectable officers as can be found in your brigade, to examine the validity of the claim and the manner in which the person in question came into service. Having inquired into the matter, with all the attending circumstances, they will report to you their opinion thereon; which you will report to me as soon as conveniently may be.
"I am, Sir, with great respect, your most obedient servant,
"George Washington.
"P. S.—All concerned should be notified to attend.
"Brig.-Gen. Putnam."
Not only did some of the negro soldiers who fought in the American Army receive unjust treatment at the close of the war, but those who served under the Royal standard, also shared a fate quite different from what they supposed it would be when the proclamations of Lord Dunmore, Clinton and Cornwallis, were inviting them to cast their lot with the British.
The high character of Thomas Jefferson induces me to reproduce his letter to Dr. Gordon, or rather that portion of it which refers to the treatment of the negroes who went with the British army. Mr. Jefferson says:
"From an estimate I made at that time, on the best information I could collect, I supposed the State of Virginia lost, under Lord Cornwallis' hand, that year, about thirty thousand slaves; and that, of these, twenty-seven thousand died of the small-pox and camp fever; the rest were partly sent to the West Indies, and exchanged for rum, sugar, coffee and fruit; and partly sent to New York, from whence they went, at the peace, either to Nova Scotia or to England. From this last place, I believe they have lately been sent to Africa. History will never relate the horrors committed by the British army in the Southern States of America."