African American views and aspirations.
African Americans participated in the War of 1812 as sailors, soldiers, laborers, and refugees. The British promised freedom to enslaved people who escaped to their lines, while the United States relied on Black service in limited and often segregated roles. The war disrupted slavery in the Chesapeake and Gulf Coast, produced the Corps of Colonial Marines, and led some Black refugees to settle in British colonies, though many remained enslaved.
During the War of 1812, thousands of enslaved African Americans fled to British lines, becoming the war’s largest refugee group. They served in the British military, especially the Colonial Marines, and resettled in Bermuda, Trinidad, and Nova Scotia, shaping a diplomatic crisis after the Treaty of Ghent.
Free men of color, or gens de couleur libres, formed two militia battalions that fought for the United States under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. Their service helped defend the city and became a contested symbol in the fight for citizenship and recognition.
