Cochrane’s Proclamation created the largest enslaved emancipation until Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation 50 years later.
During the War of 1812, British Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane issued a Proclamation/Promise to Americans from Bermuda. It was an offer to the enslaved. Many enslaved people along the Patuxent River took advantage of his promise and fled their plantations for the promise of freedom.
The text below is part of British Vice Admiral Cochrane’s Proclamation/Promise to Americans the summer of 1814. Although the proclamation did not directly address slaves, all knew who was intended to hear the call. This offer was part of Cochran’s larger plan to defeat the Americans. According to the African American Registry, “the British Royal Navy blockades and raids allowed 4,000 enslaved to escape American plantations and flee to British ships”. Other historians estimate between 7.ooo – 20,000 enslaved flee to the British during the war. By any account it was the largest emancipation of African Americans prior to the Civil War. Many of these enslaved persons and families came from the Southern Maryland plantations.
British Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane’s Proclamation/Promise
“,,, All those who may be disposed to emigrate from the UNITED STATES will, with their Families, be received on board His Majesty’s Ships or Vessels of War, or at the Military Posts that may be established, upon or near the Coast of the UNITED STATES, when they will have their choice of either entering into His Majesty’s Sea or Land Forces, or being sent as FREE settlers to the British Possessions in North America or the west Indies, where they will meet with due encouragement.
Given under my Hand at Bermuda, this 2nd day of April, 1914,
ALEXANDER COCHRANE”
Southern Maryland enslaved persons influenced by the Cochrane Proclamation include:
Peter Newlings
