r
have been surprising if you had succeeded; nor will you, I
fear, have better success in Georgia."

This letter settles forever any boast of the Southerners, that to them
is due the credit of gaining the independence of the United States. It
is true Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown, Va., was the last of the
series of battles fought for independence.[6] But we must remember that
the French were at Yorktown. It cannot be doubted but that from
Charleston to Yorktown the Americans met negro troops more than once
fighting under the Royal flag; while at the east, in every important
engagement between the two enemies,--British and American,--the negro
was found fighting with the Americans. This division of the negroes can
easily be accounted for, since at the North and East the object of the
war was acknowledged to be set forth in the Declaration of Independence;
at the South only so much of the Declaration was accepted as demanded
Independence from Great Britain. Therefore, though in separate and
opposing armies, the object of the negro was the same--liberty. It is to
be regretted that the historians of the Revolutionary period did not
more particularly chronicle the part taken by negroes at the South,
though enough is known to put their employment beyond doubt.

Johnson, the author of the life of Gen. Greene, speaking of Greene's
recommendation to the Legislature of South Carolina to enroll negroes,
says:

"There is a sovereign, who, at this time, draws his soldiery
from the same class of people; and finds a facility in
forming and disciplining an army, which no other power
enjoys. Nor does his immense military force, formed from
that class of his subjects, excite the least apprehension;
for the soldier's will is subdued to that of his officer,
and his improved condition takes away the habit of
identifying himself with the class from which he has been
separated. Military men know what mere machines men become
under discipline, and believe that any men, who may be
obedient, may be made soldiers; and that increasing their
numbers increases the means of their own subjection and
government."

Cornwallis doubtless had gathered within his lines a large number of
negroes, to whose energy and labor, the erection of his breastworks were
mainly due. Lafayette feeling satisfied that the position of his army
before Yorktown would confine the British, and