When Enslaved People Became Currency During the Revolution| Dr Sean Gallagher

What role did slavery play in the American Revolution? In this episode of Local Matters, Dr. Sean Gallagher explores the experiences of enslaved people during the Revolutionary War, including the fight for freedom, slave confiscation, forced labor, and the formation of maroon communities. Dr. Gallagher also discusses the skilled labor performed by enslaved people and how the choices made during the Revolution helped shape America’s ongoing struggle with race and freedom. A fascinating conversation that challenges how we understand the founding of the United States.

Dr. Sean Gallagher is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He is a historian whose research focuses on slavery, labor, and the American Revolution, with particular attention to the experiences and contributions of enslaved people during the founding of the United States. His research examines the ways Patriots and state governments depended on enslaved labor during the Revolutionary War, including shipbuilding, piloting, blacksmithing, carpentry, road construction, fortification work, hospital labor, and other skilled and unskilled trades. His work also explores the experiences of Black Loyalists who sought freedom by joining the British, as well as the confiscation and trafficking of enslaved people by Patriot forces. A major focus of his research is marronage, the formation of communities of enslaved people who escaped bondage and sought refuge in difficult terrain. His work examines maroon communities along the Savannah River during and after the Revolutionary War and their connections to the broader history of Black freedom and resistance. Dr. Gallagher earned his Ph.D. in American History from the University of California, Davis. His research began with an interest in early American labor history before leading him to investigate the central role enslaved people played in the labor systems that supported the Revolutionary War. He is currently completing his book manuscript, Slavery’s Revolution, which is forthcoming from Penn Press. His research has also appeared in academic journals and other publications, including work on different aspects of the Black experience during the American Revolution.

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