Declaration Covers Enslaved Also?

The Black valets of the Southern colonies heard in Philadelphia when the Declaration of Independence was adopted, but they did not think that the rousing words of “all men are created equally” applied to them. However, many in bondage heard those same words and reacted joyously by demanding that they were free. From New York to South Carolina, runaways offered their explanation for their action by arguing that the Declaration of Independence applied to their circumstances. Ads in local newspapers requested by disconcerted masters were in abundance.

Printed in the Virginia Gazette shortly after July 4, 1776, an owner of an enslaved man was offering a reward for a runaway saying, “I am as free as any other man” and claimed that the “present troubles have made him so. “Present troubles” was a common phrase for the Revolution. This is one of the earliest printed examples of an enslaved person declaring himself free because of the political upheaval.

Published in the Philadelphia Gazette of 1776, An enslaved woman fled, telling neighbors that “all men are born free” and that she “would not return to bondage.” This is almost a direct echo of the Declaration’s phrasing. It shows enslaved people immediately applying the language to themselves.

An embarrassed master ran an advertisement for his runaway in Charleston stating in the South Carolina Gazette of 1777 complained that his enslaved man had run away because he believed “the times have made him free.” Charleston’s enslaved population was deeply connected to port news, sailors, and political talk. This ad shows the Declaration’s ideas spreading even in the Deep South.

In Maryland, another ad appeared that said simply that his enslaved man who insisted “he is free by the new laws” and refused to acknowledge his enslaver’s authority. “New laws” almost certainly refers to the Declaration’s language and the flood of Patriot rhetoric about equality and natural rights.

In the north, the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury ran an ad from a slaveowner who stated that his runaway enslaved man reportedly said, “the Congress has declared all men equal” and, therefore, he was “no longer a slave.” This is one of the clearest surviving statements linking the Declaration’s equality clause to an enslaved person’s self‑emancipation.

In Maryland, a man ran away from his master who paid for an ad to run in the Maryland Gazette in 1777 that stated he was “free by rights” and that “no man had a right to own another.” This reflects the natural‑rights language circulating after the Declaration.

The Georgia Gazette was paid by a master trying to reclaim his property that his enslaved man fled saying he was “a free man by the laws of nature.” This is pure Enlightenment language — the same philosophical foundation as the Declaration.

In 1781, an African-American woman by the name of Elizabeth Freeman in Boston said that she heard the words “all men are born free and equal” read aloud and declared: “I am not a dumb critter; I am free by the same law.” She sued and won.

Across the colonies, enslaved people heard the ideals of the Declaration, understood the language of freedom, applied it to themselves, and declared themselves free. They acted on those beliefs and ran away.