Black Redcoats

The Corps of Colonial Marines, 1814–1816

Matthew Taylor

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781399034036
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

Tells the story of the thousands of enslaved African Americans who fled to British forces during the war in what became the largest emancipation of enslaved Americans until the abolition of slavery in the United States. During the Anglo-American War of 1812, British forces launched hundreds of amphibious raids on the United States. The richest parts of the United States were slave-states, and thousands of enslaved African Americans fled to British forces in what was to be the largest emancipation of enslaved Americans until the abolition of slavery in the USA. From these refugees from slavery, the British built a force - the Corps of Colonial Marines. Black redcoats, they were a fusion of two great American fears, the return of the British King and an uprising by their own oppressed slaves. The Corps of Colonial Marines turned Britain's campaign on America's coasts from one of harassment to one of existential threat to the new nation. Although small in number, the Colonial Marines - fighting to liberate their own families as much as for Great Britain - exerted a massive psychological impact on the United States which paralysed American resistance with fear of a widespread slave uprising, and allowed British forces in the Chesapeake to burn down Washington DC. As well as examining this little-remembered part of British military and African-American history, this book will also look to the post-war history of the Colonial Marines, their continued survival as a unique ethnic group in the Caribbean today, and their involvement in the largest act of armed African-American resistance to slavery. The "Battle of Negro Fort" in 1816 was the only time American forces left American territory to destroy a fugitive slave community - a community led by former Colonial Marines who, when faced with American attack, raised the British flag. This book brings black history to the fore of the War of 1812, and gives a voice to those enslaved people who - amidst great power competition between a slave-holding Republic and a slave-holding Empire – demonstrated exceptional bravery and initiative to gain precious freedom for themselves and their descendants.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Anglo-American War
• Chapter 2: The Chesapeake Campaign
• Chapter 3: The Beginning of the Great Escape 1813
• Chapter 4: A New Direction 1814
• Chapter 5: Tangier Island and the Birth of the Colonial Marines
• Chapter 6: First Blood
• Chapter 7: Expansion and Employment
• Chapter 8: Marching on Washington
• Chapter 9: The Battle of Bladensburg
• Chapter 10: Washington DC Burns
• Chapter 11: Baltimore and the Battle of North Point
• Chapter 12: Anthem
• Chapter 13: Raiding Along the Rappahannock
• Chapter 14: A Success of British Arms in Black Hands
• Chapter 15: Final Acts in the Chesapeake
• Chapter 16: The Devil Goes Down to Georgia
• Chapter 17: A Black Army
• Chapter 18: Withdrawal from Cumberland
• Chapter 19: Fear of a Black Republic
• Chapter 20: Florida: Into the Cauldron of the Creek War
• Chapter 21: Union Jack on the Apalachicola
• Chapter 22: Nicolls Builds the Florida Corps
• Chapter 23: The Attack on Fort Bowyer
• Chapter 24: Jackson’s Invasion
• Chapter 25: African-Americans in the Battle of New Orleans
• Chapter 26: Defeat and Liberation
• Chapter 27: Impact of the Florida Colonial Marines
• Chapter 28: Nicolls’ Last Crusade
• Chapter 29: Peace and Compensation
• Chapter 30: Settlement and Legacy
• Chapter 31: The Last Battle of the Colonial Marines
• Chapter 32: British in their Hearts
• Chapter 33: Afterword
• Acknowledgements
• Appendix: Corps of Colonial Marines, personnel in August 1816
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Plates