Harry Washington

The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program's mission, through collaboration with local, state, and federal entities, as well as individuals and organizations, is to honor, preserve and promote the history of resistance to enslavement through escape, fight, and flight, which continues to inspire people worldwide. Through its mission, the Network to Freedom helps to advance the idea that all human beings embrace the right to self-determination and freedom from oppression. 

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War, the Network to Freedom program wanted to focus research on freedom-seeking during this period and called the multiyear project Claiming Freedom. Harry Washington is an exemplary case of escape, fight, and flight. Harry was fighting for his, and other Black people’s, most basic human rights while enslaved by a man who was considered a pioneer of freedom during the Revolutionary War—George Washington. 

The hypocrisy of Harry’s plight is not the only noteworthy part, but that his freedom fighting was trans-continental. Harry’s story takes us from the west coast of Africa, to the Americas, and back. All in the name of finding freedom in a world of unfreedom.   

In 1771, Harry resurfaces back into the historical record in a striking way, etching his presence and autonomy onto George Washington’s diary. Harry defied bondage by attempting to escape on July 29th, 1771. In response, George Washington journaled that he spent August 2nd immersed in the task of “writing Letters & Advertisements,” setting aside a reward of 1 pound and 16 shillings for his return.4Publishing advertisements for the return There is a lack of information regarding how Harry escaped from or returned to Mount Vernon, however, he continues to appear in George Washington’s yearly “Memorandum List of Tithables” until 1774. 5 

In November of 1775, following the outbreak of war at Lexington and Concord, Lord Dunmore – Virginia’s last royal governor – issued a proclamation that shook colonial Virginia. Dunmore declared that all indentured servants and enslaved people who took up arms for the Loyalist, or British, military would be deemed free once Patriot, or American, rebels were defeated. The individuals who self-liberated and fled to British lines formed, what Lord Dunmore termed, the ‘Ethiopian Regiment.’ 

For the tens of thousands of unfree people across the colonies, this proclamation offered hope of freedom. It is likely Harry viewed escape and enlistment in the British military as his best option for seizing his freedom.  

Embracing the opportunity, Harry once again defied bondage. In 1776, he escaped George Washington’s enslavement and enlisted in the British Royal Artillery along with thousands of other Black Loyalists. However, within a mere year, Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment faced a disabling smallpox outbreak and inevitably disbanded. As the Ethiopian Regiment dissolved, its remnants found new identity and work within the Black Pioneers. Tasked as non-combat troops, the Pioneers primary role was to provide crucial support services such as building defenses. At times, the Black Pioneers went beyond their designation as auxiliary troops and showed their determination for freedom and prowess on the battlefield.6   

Harry’s presence in the war does not become apparent until October of 1781, where a list of “Negroes Employed in the Royal Artillery Department” is produced. Here, there isn’t a “Harry” to be found, but there is a “Corporal Washington”. Here, we find Harry as “Corporal Washington”. Rising to the rank of Corporal was no easy feat. To be promoted to Corporal, Harry would have to work diligently between 6 to 8 years in the British Royal Artillery.7 As Corporal, Harry shouldered the responsibility that his fellow soldiers were well-equipped. His duties extended to guaranteeing each soldier’s canteen was full, their ammunition cartridges stocked, and assigning work details to maintain the seamless operation of their camp. 

As the Revolutionary War came to an end with a confirmed American victory, the British were then forced to grapple with the promise Lord Dunmore issued eight years prior —a promise that relied on Britain winning the war. Despite their defeat, the British still attempted to honor their commitment by evacuating Black Loyalists from the fledgling United States in the spring of. Those who had served the British cause for at least a year would receive Certificates of Freedom, stating that “the said negro has hereby his Excellency Sir Guy Carleton’s permission to go to Nova Scotia or wherever else he may think proper.”8 With these passports of sorts in hand, Black Loyalists could begin navigate toward a fresh start in freedom. 

Thousands of hopeful African Americans boarded an array of English vessels bound for British colonial holdings in Nova Scotia, the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Great Britain itself. Harry Washington boarded the H.M.S. L’Abondance in July 1783. Bound for Port Roseway on Nova Scotia’s south-western Atlantic coast, Harry is documented as “a fine fellow,” who was “formerly the property of General Washington”, whom he had escaped 7 years prior.9 Black and White disembarked on overcrowded British vessels for a nine-day voyage from New York City to Nova Scotia. Upon arrival, Harry and the thousands of other Loyalist refugees were greeted by thick, wild, and expansive forests. This view was largely disappointing to those who left everything behind to start a new life, “many of the women simply sat down on the rocks on the shores … and wept.”10 What stood before Harry and others was not a promising settlement; instead, it was a vast and untamed wilderness, and the daunting task fell upon their shoulders to forge a settlement from the land before them.  

 Lines & Profile | Royal Museums Greenwich (rmg.co.uk) 

Despite the lack of planning for the Loyalists’ arrival, Harry among others built Birchtown, which will later be incorporated into Shelburne County, from the ground up to be the largest settlement of free Black people in North America. In building up this community, Harry secured a 40-acre plot of land for himself and his wife Jenny in 1787.11 

 A Black Canadian Wood Cutter at Shelburne, Nova Scotia (bac-lac.gc.ca) 

Although Nova Scotia was depicted as a haven for Harry and fellow Loyalists seeking a fresh start, this new settlement was not immune to the social peril and racism that radiated through the Atlantic world. Black people were no longer enslaved, but were still expected to serve White people and their interests. Wage theft was commonly practiced in Birchtown, where White employers routinely withheld earnings from Black workers and were paid approximately one-quarter of what their White counterparts made.12 There were few, if any, avenues for recourse for these actions. Simultaneously, because Black workers could be forced to work for lower wages, they dominated some labor markets, such as fishing, within Birchtown. 

This outraged some of the White settlers in Shelburne, driving them to riot against the Blacks in Birchtown. In July of 1784, White Loyalists took up arms “against the Free negroes to drive them out of Town, because they labour cheaper than they–the [Whites].”13 Approximately 50 rioters destroyed 20 homes and assaulted a man until he ran into the woods. In a cruel irony, the very system that placed White employers and landowners in control of Black wages and shaped the labor market also became the catalyst for resentment among White settlers. This double-edged sword manifested in this riot against Black laborers, exposing a vicious cycle created by racist social structures. 

Peril struck Birchtown again in 1787, this time in the form of a “dreadful famine”. The settlements struggled with feeding its people, largely from extreme cold weather and short planting seasons for crops, the discontinuance of provisions by the British, and the lack of established farmland in the area. Boston King, a Black Loyalist from North Carolina, witnessed firsthand how the famine affected the poor Black population in Birchtown. People sold their most prized possessions for food items such as maize (corn) and pounds of flour, “poverty and distress prevailed on every side”.14  

In the wake of the turbulent events that plagued 1780s Shelburne and Birchtown, Nova Scotia, an enticing opportunity arose for Harry. He followed Methodist preacher Moses Wilkinson, known as “Daddy Moses”, who hosted John Clarkson, an agent of the Sierra Leone Company. In October 1791, Clarkson presented to a congregation of approximately 300-400 people a vision of a racially equal colony in West Africa. The vision—racial equality, land grants, control over wages and taxes, and the explciit prohibition of slavery awaited in a new colony in West Africa. At age 51, laden with muskets and tools, Harry and his wife Jenny—and 1200 other Nova Scotians—embarked on a hopeful journey to Sierra Leone.15 

Clarkson, who would become the first colonial governor of the colony, informed the settlers that life in Sierra Leone would be difficult, however, nothing prepared them for what was to come. 

Upon arrival in March 1792, the Black settlers found Freetown in stark contrast to the promises Clarkson made. Discontent simmered, leading to petitions and letters expressing their grievances to Clarkson. The church, a hub for education and political organization, played a pivotal role in the sttlers’ united stand.  

The Sierra Leone Company would take note of the prominence of church within Freetown’s community, even surveying all of the Methodists in the town. Here, we don’t find Harry Washington but another misspelling of his name, “Henry Waskenton”.16  

The church went beyond education and served as a space for the Black settlers to organize themselves politically. They would go on to elect representatives in the community who called themselves “tithingmen” and “hundredors”. The tithingmen represented groups of households while each hundredor represented 100 settlers. These spokespeople were adamant demanders of better conditions for the Black Loyalists in Freetown. They wrote letters to Clarkson petitioning for higher wages, to rid the colony of property taxes, and the right to govern themselves.  17

Spurred by the settlers’ demands, Clarkson’s empathy earned him removal as govern by the Sierra Leone Company Directors. Though Clarkson was removed as governor, this did not stop the spirit. Settlers across Freetown, including Harry, united to refuse payment of taxes to the Sierra Leone Company. In response Macaulay series of actions to intimidate and strongarm the tithingmen and hundredors to collect payments, only provoking the revolutionary spirit of these life-long freedom-seekers.  

Undeterred, the settlers, including Harry, united against the Sierra Leone Company’s oppressive taxation. By September 1800, tithingmen and hundredors had formed a league of anti-Company representatives, crafting their settler constitution. The constitution essentially removed the Sierra Leone Company from all aspects of settler life except for commercial involvement.  

The colonial government did not take kindly to this assertion of independence and took up arms against approximately 50 rebels. Some scholars say that Harry, who would have been around age 60 at this time, was one of them. When he packed his muskets for Sierra Leone, he surely didn’t antiticpate having to use it in this manner. This initial clash was the opposite of violent, it was a stalemate for 3 days. To the rebel's misfortune a tornado struck, which gave Company forces an opening to take over 30 of them hostage, stopping the rebellion in its tracks.  

The aftermath saw the hanging of two men, and the rest, potentially including Harry, were exiled to the Bullom Shore across the Sierra Leone River from Freetown. Harry’s presence vanishes from the historical record, marking a poignant, potentially final, chapter in his lifelong quest for his freedom.