The battle of Yorktown was the battle were the British gained their independence from England. The fact that America was now an independent country and they were not free infuriated the slaves. They thought that they should be free along with everybody else. Some of the slaves were free because they had fought with the British. These slaves were extremely happy because all of their efforts had payed off. Wouldn't you be happy if you had done so much work to become a free African American and it payed off. Even though the slaves thought that they would be treated fairly if they went someplace else, they were not. Even if they went to another country, they were still treated badly, even though they were free. These slaves had to escape their masters and then survive the war and now they were finally free even thought they were not treated as well as they hoped. These former slaves were now free to own land, buy and sell goods and services, and do what ever white men were allowed to do even though they were treated poorly. After the war, the slaves that had not fought or fought with the American Army were forced to go back to doing work. They had no payment for anything that they had done if they had fought in the war with the Americans.