- - The Surprising Pro-Slavery Reason Why George Washington Rejected Black Soldiers During the Revolutionary War

Jeremy HelligarNovember 16, 2025 at 9:30 PM

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Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty

George Washington. -

Ken Burns six-episode docuseries The American Revolution premieres on PBS Nov. 16

The series is narrated by Peter Coyote and features the voices of Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and others

The American Revolution does a deep dive into the lives of Black Americans during the war and how the conflict affected them

George Washington has long been highly regarded as the father of his country. It's hard to imagine that the 13 original colonies that became the United States would have won their independence from Britain in the Revolutionary War without Washington as their fearless military leader.

But when it came to pulling out all stops to win the war, Washington is said to have had his limits.

According to Ken Burns' latest sprawling documentary, the six-episode The American Revolution, Washington, who led the Continental Army for eight years, from 1775 to 1783, objected to allowing Black soldiers to fight on the side of the patriots. His reason had nothing to do with military strategy or whether they could help win the war.

William T. Ranney/Princeton University Art Museum

George Washington at the Battle of Princeton.

"Washington was also shocked to see Black soldiers encamped alongside their White neighbors," actor Peter Coyote, Burns' longtime collaborator, says in his narration. "Unconvinced they could ever make good soldiers, Washington persuaded the Massachusetts provincial Congress to enlist no more of them."

“I think that Washington was concerned about what it might mean for slavery and slaveholders," historian Christopher Brown says in the docuseries, which premieres on PBS on Nov. 16 and airs over six nights. "I think he was alert to the ways that it could end up eroding the institution."

As Coyote explains, at the time of the American Revolution, 40% of the population of Virginia, the colony Washington called home, were enslaved Blacks, while only 2% of the New England population were enslaved. Owners like Washington lived in constant fear of uprisings like the unsuccessful ones that had risen up on the then-British colony of Jamaica three times in 15 years.

Virginia's royal governor Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation in November of 1775 that any enslaved person owned by a rebel who escaped captivity and fought on the side of Britain would gain their freedom.

John Trumbull/Alamy

The Battle of Princeton in 1777.

"Britain is the biggest slave-trading nation on Earth," writer Rick Atkinson explains in episode 2, "An Asylum for Mankind," which focuses largely on how the war affected the enslaved population in the colonies. "Nevertheless, the British believe that if they can convince enough slaves to abandon their masters in the South to take up arms against the American rebels, that this is a manpower pool that can also derange the economies of the Southern states."

Dunmore's proclamation resulted in the Southern colonies becoming more dedicated to the revolution's cause and deepened the divide between the colonies and Britain, as some 800 enslaved Black men and and equal number of women and children escaped to Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment. The men, for the first time in their lives, received a paid salary. One of them, Harry Washington, who was enslaved by Washington at Mount Vernon, managed to escape captivity after an unsuccessful attempt in 1771 and fight on the side of the British.

To be clear, historian Vincent Brown explains, the British were not anti-slavery. "They are firmly committed to slavery," he says. "But, opportunistically, when they think they can encourage slaves to rise up against rebelling colonists, they'll do so."

"For enslaved people, this seemed a way to get out of a situation that was intractable," historian Annette-Gordon Reed adds. "And it gave them an impetus to get involved in all of this. In the sort of chaos of war, they found an opportunity, a way to escape their situation."

Charles Willson Peale/The Metropolitan Museum of Art

A portrait of George Washington.

Washington, according the the documentary, "called Lord Dunmore a monster and an arch traitor to the rights of humanity."

Said Washington (voiced by Oscar-nominated actor Josh Brolin): "If that man is not crushed before spring, he will become the most formidable enemy America has. His strength will increase as a snowball by rolling and faster. Nothing less than depriving him of life or liberty will secure peace to Virginia."

The American Revolution takes a detailed look at the war and painstakingly uncovers the various layers of the conflict, including the dark irony of a war for independence being launched by White men who owned enslaved Black people. They appeared not to believe that the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness extended to anyone who wasn't a White male.

John Trumbull/Yale University Art Gallery

The signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

In recent years, the reputations of founding fathers like Washington and Thomas Jefferson have suffered because of their contradictory views and actions regarding freedom. They preached independence while holding enslaved Black people on their plantations.

The docuseries underscores this shift by presenting an alleged encounter between Washington and Darby Vassall, a 6-year-old boy the general found swinging on the gate of a house the Continental Army had taken possession of in Cambridge, Mass. "Washington urged him to come inside and get something to eat," Coyote says. "He had plenty of chores for him to do. When Darby asked what sort of wages he could expect, Washington thought the question impertinent and unreasonable."

"Darby Vassall lived to be a very old man," the narration continues, "and when asked, he liked to say that, in his experience, George Washington was no gentleman, since he'd expected the boy to work for free."

The docuseries' six two-hour episodes feature voice work by an assortment of A-list talent portraying historical figures, including Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Kenneth Branagh, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Morgan Freeman, Paul Giamatti, Jonathan Groff, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, Laura Linney, Josh Lucas, Edward Norton, Mandy Patinkin, Liev Schreiber and others.

The American Revolution will premiere on Sunday, Nov. 16 and air for six consecutive nights through Friday, Nov. 21 at 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET on PBS. The full series will be available to stream beginning Sunday, Nov. 16 at PBS.org and on the PBS App.

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