‘All spirited likely young lads’: free men of colour, the defence of Jamaica, and subjecthood during the American War for Independence

Abstract

The American War for Independence provided opportunities across the British Americas for people of African descent to embrace military service as a means of enhancing their rights. In Jamaica wartime disagreements between imperial officials and the planter elite gave free men of colour an opportunity to lay claim to fairer treatment and the rights of subjecthood through military service. By examining a series of unique and unprecedented petitions and recruiting proclamations, this article reconstructs the creation of the Jamaica Rangers in 1782 and reveals how free men challenged the racial hierarchies of the island and coalesced politically a decade before scholars have previously recognised the emergence of community mobilisation.