Joseph Harris must have been scared when the hurricane roared up the coast of Virginia, scattering the British fleet in Hampton Roads and blowing his small ship aground at Hampton. He must have been even more terrified when a band of local residents showed up at the wreck and took the sailors prisoner. After all, he was no ordinary crewman: He and two fellow crewmen had escaped slavery and joined the British Navy. Now here were some armed Virginians, eager to take the British captive and return their former slaves to bondage. Or, perhaps, execution.
What happened in the ensuing days 250 years ago this October led to the first battle of the American Revolution south of New England. It took place on the shore of Hampton — and involved the status of a runaway slave.
What history records as the Battle of Hampton is an event rarely mentioned in most Virginia history books but one which highlights the complexity of the revolution in Virginia — and the role that slavery played in the conflict…