Editing War of 1812 (section)

=== Freeing and recruiting slaves ===
[[File:Gabriel Hall, Nova Scotia.png|thumb|upright|The only known photograph of a [[Black Refugee (War of 1812)|Black Refugee]], {{Circa|1890}}. During the war, a number of African Americans slaves escaped aboard British ships, settling in Canada (mainly in Nova Scotia){{sfn|Whitfield|2006|p=25}} or Trinidad.]]

The British Royal Navy's blockades and raids allowed about 4,000 African Americans to escape [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] by fleeing American [[plantation]]s aboard British ships. American slaves near to the British military rebelled against their masters and made their way to British encampments. The migrants who settled in Canada were known as the [[Black Refugee (War of 1812)|Black Refugees]]. The blockading British fleet in the Chesapeake Bay received increasing numbers of freed slaves during 1813. By British government order, they were considered free persons when they reached British hands.{{sfn|Weiss|2013}}{{sfn|Malcomson|2012|p=366}}

Alexander Cochrane's [[Black Refugee (War of 1812)|proclamation]] of 2 April 1814 invited Americans who wished to emigrate to join the British. Although it did not explicitly mention slaves, it was taken by all as addressed to them. About 2,400 escaped slaves and their families were transported by the Royal Navy to the [[Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda|Royal Naval Dockyard]] at Bermuda (where they were employed on works about the yard and organized as a militia to aid in the defence of the yard), Nova Scotia and [[New Brunswick]] during and after the war. Starting in May 1814, younger male volunteers were recruited into a new Corps of Colonial Marines. They fought for Britain throughout the Atlantic campaign, including the Battle of Bladensburg, the attacks on Washington, D.C., and the Battle of Baltimore, before withdrawing to Bermuda with the rest of the British forces. They were later settled in [[Trinidad]] after having rejected orders for transfer to the [[West India Regiments]], forming the community of the [[Merikins]] (none of the freed slaves remained in Bermuda after the war). These escaped slaves represented the largest emancipation of African Americans prior to the [[American Civil War]].{{sfn|Bermingham|2003}}{{sfn|Black Sailors Soldiers|2012}}{{sfn|''The Royal Gazette'' 2016}} Britain paid the United States for the financial loss of the slaves at the end of the war.{{sfn|Taylor|2010|p=432}}