Washington [306]
Under mounting pressure from southern slave masters, Washington arranged a meeting with Carleton in early May at his own temporary headquarters on the Hudson River at Tappan, New York. Although they also discussed prisoner exchanges and evacuating British posts, slavery formed the crux of the meeting. Washington conducted himself with impeccable ceremony, greeting Carleton’s frigate Perseverance by the river, then proceeding with him by carriage up to a quaint little gabled house with beamed ceilings. Though suffering from a slight fever, Carleton sat tall and ramrod-straight, a man of inflexible integrity. In their talks, Washington’s demeanor was gravely cordial, and one of Carleton’s aides said that he “delivered himself without animation, with great slowness, and a low tone of voice.”15
Refusing to shrink from his unpleasant task, Washington said he intended to take possession “of all negroes and other property of the inhabitants of these states” being held by the British.16 When Carleton retorted that he had just evacuated six thousand people from New York to Nova Scotia, many of them black, Washington bridled at this apparent violation of the treaty. “Already embarked!” he exclaimed.17 One internal British memo portrayed Washington as demanding the slaves’ return “with all the grossness and ferocity of a captain of banditti.”18 Although Washington didn’t know it at the time, four of his slaves were among those being protected by the British. A former slave named Henry Washington had escaped from Mount Vernon in 1776 and would ultimately wind up in Sierra Leone, where he would apply agricultural techniques learned from George Washington. Of the seventeen slaves who found refuge on the Savage in 1781, Washington regained two of the women at Yorktown and at least six of the men in Philadelphia.
Seizing the moral high ground, the honorable Carleton insisted that the British would not renege on wartime promises to free slaves who had joined their ranks and stated with memorable certitude that “the national honor . . . must be kept with all colors.”19 Returning the former slaves “would be delivering them up, some possibly to execution and others to severe punishment, which in his opinion would be a dishonorable violation of the public faith pledged to the Negroes in the proclamations.”20
Although they didn’t say so openly, the British feared that some ex-slaves would commit suicide rather than return to bondage. Trepidation was rampant in the community of ex-slaves at the thought of returning to their masters. “This dreadful rumor filled us all with inexpressible anguish and terror,” said a young black carpenter named Boston King, “especially when we saw our old masters coming from Virginia, North Carolina, and other parts and seizing upon their slaves in the streets of New York or even dragging them out of their beds.”21 Carleton claimed that the British had pledged not to carry off slaves but never promised to restore them to owners. He left open the possibility of compensating the owners of slaves who had fled after hostilities ended and claimed to be keeping a register of former slaves for this purpose. Washington insisted that slaves would give false names and make detection impossible. Both sides agreed to name commissioners to arbitrate the issue and check passengers boarding ships in New York, although Washington doubted that former slaves would ever be reclaimed. Whatever his displeasure, he conducted himself like a gentleman. “Washington pulled out his watch, and, observing that it was near dinner time, offered wine and bitters,” recalled