This verse is referring to the british, not menial laborers or chattel slaves. “Hirelings” was (is?) an insulting term to describe a mercenary, and the implication is that they are either brigands who are only in it for a pittance wage, rubes who do it because of a loyalty to the monarchy and/or impressed soldiers of the british (a practice with many parallels to chattel slavery, for what that’s worth). A modern version might call them “sheep” with a similar implication.
And it’s important to add, one of the cassi belli for the war of 1812 was the british impressment of sailors on American vessels, including American citizens.
The song was written about the war of 1812, not the revolutionary war.
As the wikipedia article points out, during the revolutionary war most of the black Patriots were recruited from the north already as free men of color and were at the time lionized for their actions (albeit in predictably racist terms) - and abolition would take over the north quite quickly afterwards (most having some form of abolition well before 1800). The first continental congress also banned the import of slaves in 1774 (though abolitionists cheered it at the time and rightly so, it should be said that this was primairly a method of applying economic pressure to the british), and would set up the civil war by doing so.
This verse is referring to the british, not menial laborers or chattel slaves. “Hirelings” was (is?) an insulting term to describe a mercenary, and the implication is that they are either brigands who are only in it for a pittance wage, rubes who do it because of a loyalty to the monarchy and/or impressed soldiers of the british (a practice with many parallels to chattel slavery, for what that’s worth). A modern version might call them “sheep” with a similar implication.
And it’s important to add, one of the cassi belli for the war of 1812 was the british impressment of sailors on American vessels, including American citizens.
Well, except Britain promised freedom to slaves that fought for their cause, so I still assume it means slaves in the literal sense.
Kinda fucked the US didn’t do the same given the whole fight for freedom bit…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_in_the_Revolutionary_War
The song was written about the war of 1812, not the revolutionary war.
As the wikipedia article points out, during the revolutionary war most of the black Patriots were recruited from the north already as free men of color and were at the time lionized for their actions (albeit in predictably racist terms) - and abolition would take over the north quite quickly afterwards (most having some form of abolition well before 1800). The first continental congress also banned the import of slaves in 1774 (though abolitionists cheered it at the time and rightly so, it should be said that this was primairly a method of applying economic pressure to the british), and would set up the civil war by doing so.