Born around 1740 in the Gambia region of West Africa, Harry Washington was enslaved, purchased by George Washington in 1763, and forced to labor in the Great Dismal Swamp. In 1776 he escaped to British lines. This deep dive uses his life to explore the Black Loyalists, from the rumors sparked by Somerset v. Stewart to Dunmore’s Proclamation, the Royal Ethiopian Regiment, the Black Pioneers, and guerrilla leader Colonel Tye.

When the British evacuated New York in 1783, General Guy Carleton refused to return Black Loyalists and recorded them in the Book of Negroes. Harry reached Birchtown, Nova Scotia, where poor land, low wages, and the Shelburne riots followed. In 1792 he joined nearly 1,200 settlers who sailed to found Freetown, Sierra Leone, and in 1800 he joined an armed rebellion against the Sierra Leone Company over quit rents, leading to his banishment.

• Why enslaved people saw the British as a path to freedom
• The dangers faced by Black Loyalists in British service
• The Book of Negroes and the evacuation of New York
• Broken promises and the Shelburne riots in Nova Scotia
• Founding Freetown and the 1800 rebellion against quit rents