![]() ![]() ![]() Instead they turned south, their interests aligning more and more with their section. It also alienated Virginians from a national government that had neglected their defense. Tidewater masters had long dreaded their slaves as "an internal enemy." By mobilizing that enemy, the war ignited the deepest fears of Chesapeake slaveholders. They enabled the British to escalate their onshore attacks and to capture and burn Washington, D.C. As guides, pilots, sailors, and marines, the former slaves used their intimate knowledge of the countryside to transform the war. The runaways pressured the British admirals into becoming liberators. Over many nights, hundreds of slaves paddled out to the warships seeking protection for their families from the ravages of slavery. Frederick Douglass recalled that slaves living along Chesapeake Bay longingly viewed sailing ships as "freedom's swift-winged angels." In 1813 those angels appeared in the bay as British warships coming to punish the Americans for declaring war on the empire. ![]()
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