Evacuation Day on November 25 marks the day in 1783 when British forces evacuated New York City after the Treaty of Paris led to the end of the American Revolutionary War. In their wake, General George Washington led the Continental Army from his headquarters north of the city across the Harlem River and south through Manhattan to the Battery at its southern tip.
History Background
Following the significant losses at the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, General George Washington and the Continental Army retreated across the East River by benefit of both a retreat and holding action by well-trained Maryland Line troops at Gowanus Creek and Canal and a night fog which obscured the barges and boats evacuating troops to Manhattan Island.Field, Thomas Warren. The Battle of Long Island: With Connected Preceding Events, and the Subsequent American Retreat Long Island Historical Society, 1869, page 250 On September 15, 1776, the British flag replaced the American atop Fort George, where it was to remain until Evacuation Day.
Washington's Continentals subsequently withdrew north and west out of the town and following the Battle of Harlem Heights and later action at the river forts of Fort Washington and Fort Lee on the northwest corner of the island along the Hudson River on November 16, 1776, evacuated Manhattan Island. They headed north for Westchester County, fought a delaying action at White Plains, and retreated across New Jersey in the New York and New Jersey campaign.
For the remainder of the American Revolutionary War, much of what is now Greater New York was under British control. New York City (occupying then only the southern tip of Manhattan, up to what is today Chambers Street), became, under Admiral of the Fleet Richard Howe, Lord Howe and his brother Sir William Howe, General of the British Army, the British political and military center of operations in British North America. David Mathews was Mayor of New York during the occupation. Many of the civilians who continued to reside in town were Loyalists.Calhoon, Robert M. "Loyalism and neutrality" Chapter 29, p. 235. Greene, Jack P. and Pole, J.R. A Companion of the American Revolution (2004)
On September 21, 1776, the city suffered a devastating fire of an uncertain origin after the evacuation of Washington's Continental Army at the beginning of the occupation. With hundreds of houses destroyed, many residents had to live in makeshift housing built from old ships. In addition, over 10,000 Patriot soldiers and sailors died on prison ships in New York waters (Wallabout Bay) during the occupation—more Patriots died on these ships than died in every single battle of the war, combined.Dring, Thomas and Greene, Albert. "Recollections of the Jersey Prison Ship" (American Experience Series, No 8). Applewood Books. November 1, 1986. Taylor, George. "Martyrs To The Revolution In The British Prison-Ships In The Wallabout Bay." (originally printed 1855) Kessinger Publishing, LLC. October 2, 2007. .Banks, James Lenox. " Prison ships in the Revolution: New facts in regard to their management." 1903.Hawkins, Christopher. "The life and adventures of Christopher Hawkins, a prisoner on board the 'Old Jersey' prison ship during the War of the Revolution." Holland Club. 1858.Andros, Thomas. "The old Jersey captive: Or, A narrative of the captivity of Thomas Andros...on board the old Jersey prison ship at New York, 1781. In a series of letters to a friend." W. Peirce. 1833.Lang, Patrick J.. "The horrors of the English prison ships, 1776 to 1783, and the barbarous treatment of the American patriots imprisoned on them." Society of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, 1939.Onderdonk. Henry. "Revolutionary Incidents of Suffolk and Kings Counties; With an Account of the Battle of Long Island and the British Prisons and Prison-Ships at New York." Associated Faculty Press, Inc. June 1970. .West, Charles E.. "Horrors of the prison ships: Dr. West's description of the wallabout floating dungeons, how captive patriots fared." Eagle Book Printing Department, 1895. These men are memorialized, and many of their remains are interred, at the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn.
During the British occupation, New York City became "an island of freedom in a sea of slavery" due to the Philipsburg Proclamation, which allowed all Patriot-owned slaves to escape to British lines and become free. The city became a haven for fugitive slaves from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. In New York City, freed slaves found work as construction workers or as servants, cooks, and laundresses for the British garrison; "[for] the first time in their lives, they received wages and were effectively treated as free, although their ultimate fate remained uncertain." Major influxes of Black refugees arrived to the city after the British evacuation of Philadelphia in 1778 and the Franco-American victory at the siege of Yorktown in 1781.
British evacuation
In mid-August 1783, Sir Guy Carleton, the last British commander in the United States, received orders from his superiors in London to evacuate New York. Carleton subsequently informed Elias Boudinot, the President of the Confederation Congress, that though he was proceeding with the evacuation as fast as possible but that it was not possible to give an exact date when it would be complete due to the dramatic increase of Loyalist refugees into New York (more than 29,000 refugees were eventually evacuated from the city).Grasso, Dr. Joan S. The American Revolution on Long Island Arcadia Publishing, 2016, page 110 At the time the evacuation began, around 60,000 Loyalists resided in New York City, 4,000 of whom were Black Loyalists.
Boston King, a Black South Carolinian who escaped from slavery to Charles Town following the capture of the city by British forces in May 1780 before making his way to New York City, noted in his memoirs that news of the Treaty of Paris "diffused universal joy among all parties, except us, who had escaped from slavery." Rumors spread among Black New Yorkers that former slaves "were to be delivered up to their masters... fill[ing] us all with inexpressible anguish and terror." American enslavers and slave catchers entered the city, intent on re-enslaving former slaves. One of them was Daniel Parker, a Continental Army contractor whom Washington instructed to re-enslave his own slaves: "If by chance you should come at the knowledge of any of them, I will be much obliged by your securing them so I may obtain them again."
When negotiating the Treaty of Paris, American negotiators included a clause that required Britain to return back to their enslavers all former slaves who had fled to the British. Despite this, Carleton insisted the clause did not apply to former slaves who had been promised their freedom by British authorities. When he had personally met with Washington in May 1783, Carleton was asked about "obtaining the delivery of Negroes and other property", with Washington hoping that the British would keep a lookout for "some of [his] own slaves" who had escaped during the war. Washington was surprised by Carleton's response that to deprive former slaves of the freedom they had been promised would be a "dishonourable violation of the public faith".
When British ships began sailing out of New York Harbor, they carried onboard tens of thousands of British servicemen and white Loyalists along with 2,800 Black Loyalists. Carleton had instructed Brigadier-general Samuel Birch to create the Book of Negroes, which listed 1,136 men, 914 women, and 750 children who had left the city during the evacuation, and sent a copy to Washington. Most of the 2,800 Black Loyalists were from the American South, while approximately 300 were from New York. Those who were evacuated from New York went to various ports across the British Empire, including Nova Scotia, Florida, the West Indies and England. Carleton gave a final evacuation date of 12:00 noon on November 25, 1783. New York physician Alexander Anderson claimed a brief scuffle occurred between a British officer and the proprietress of a boarding house when the latter raised an American flag before noon. For years afterward, the British decision to evacuate the freed slaves and refusal to compensate their American enslavers remained a point of tension in Anglo-American relations.Lanning, Michael Lee. African Americans in the Revolutionary War page 161. Following the evacuation New York was secured by American troops under the command of General Henry Knox.
Legendary flag-raising
Entry to the city under General George Washington was delayed until a still-flying Union Flag could be removed. The flag had been nailed to a flagpole at Fort George on the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan. The pole was greased as a final act of defiance. After a number of men attempted to tear down the British colors, wooden cleats were cut and nailed to the pole and, with the help of a ladder, an army veteran, John Van Arsdale, was allegedly able to ascend the pole, remove the flag, and replace it with the Stars and Stripes before the British fleet had completely sailed out of sight. The same day, a liberty pole with a flag was erected at New Utrecht Reformed Church; its successor still stands there. Another liberty pole was raised in Jamaica, Queens, in a celebration that December.
Washington's entry Finally, seven years after the retreat from Manhattan on November 16, 1776, General George Washington and Governor of New York George Clinton reclaimed Fort Washington on the northwest corner of Manhattan Island and then led the Continental Army in a triumphal procession march down the road through the center of the island onto Broadway in the Town to the Battery.Baker, William S. Itinerary of General Washington from June 15, 1775, to December 23, 1783 (concluded)The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 15, No. 4 (1891), pages 419–420. The evening of Evacuation Day, Clinton hosted a public dinner at Fraunces Tavern, which Washington attended. It concluded with thirteen toasts, according to a contemporary account in Rivington's Gazette, the company drinking to:
The United States of America. His most Christian Majesty. The United Netherlands. The King of Sweden. The Continental Army. The Fleets and Armies of France, which have served in America. The Memory of those Heroes who have fallen for our Freedom. May our Country be grateful to her military children. May Justice support what Courage has gained. The Vindicators of the Rights of Mankind in every Quarter of the Globe. May America be an Asylum to the persecuted of the Earth. May a close Union of the States guard the Temple they have erected to Liberty. May the Remembrance of THIS DAY be a Lesson to Princes.
The morning after, Washington had a public breakfast meeting with Hercules Mulligan, which helped dispel suspicions about the tailor and spy. Washington was still staying at Fraunces Tavern the night of the earthquake a few days later, but being accustomed to battle, his sleep was untroubled.
Gallery
Aftermath
A week later, on December 3, the British detachment under Captain James Duncan, under orders of Rear Admiral Robert Digby, evacuated Governors Island, the last of part of the-then City of New York to be occupied, and afterward Major-General Guy Carleton departed Staten Island on December 5.
It is claimed a British gunner fired the last shot of the Revolution either on Evacuation Day or when the last British ships left a week later, loosing a cannon at jeering crowds gathered on the shore of Staten Island as his ship passed through the Narrows at the mouth of New York Harbor, though the shot fell well short of the shore. This has been described by historians as an urban legend.