ABSTRACT
In 1776, few revolutionaries would have predicted that their arguments against British 'tyranny' would also be applied to the tyranny faced by slaves. Many black soldiers earned their freedom with their service in the Revolution. Within a generation, every state in what was becoming the 'North' either abolished chattel slavery or made provisions for gradual emancipation. Historians term this the 'First Emancipation'. The effect of African Americans taking up arms in the war was dramatic: nearly every state that enlisted slaves to serve in the army either freed them immediately or promised manumission at the end of their service. In some states, emancipation acts were the result of pressure exerted by the slaves themselves. A state law declared that no black person born after that date could be held in bondage after he or she turned 28. Legislation was necessary to end slavery in the other Northern states. Pennsylvania, which had a large anti-slavery Quaker population.
