Dunmore's Proclamation
Dunmore's Proclamation is a historical document signed on November 7, 1775, by John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, royal governor of the British colony of Virginia. The proclamation declared martial law in the colony, and promised freedom for "all indented servants, negroes, or others", who joined the British Army (see also Black Loyalists). Most relevant historians agree that the proclamation was chiefly designed for practical rather than moral reasons.
Formally proclaimed on November 15, its publication prompted between 800 and 2,000 slaves (from both Patriot and Loyalist owners) to run away and enlist with Dunmore. It also raised a furor among Virginia's slave-owning elites (including those who had been sympathetic to Britain), to whom the possibility of a slave rebellion was a major fear. The proclamation ultimately failed in meeting Dunmore's objectives; he was forced out of the colony in 1776, taking about 300 former slaves with him.
Later British commanders over the course of the American Revolutionary War followed Dunmore's model in enticing slaves to defect—the 1779 Philipsburg Proclamation, which applied across all the colonies, was more successful. By the end of the war, at least 20,000 slaves had escaped from plantations into British service.
Background
John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, originally from Scotland, was briefly the royal governor of the Province of New York before being named governor of Virginia in 1771 after the previous governor, Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt died. During his tenure, he worked proactively to extend Virginia's western borders past the Appalachian Mountains, despite the British Royal Proclamation of 1763. He notably defeated the Shawnee nation in Dunmore's War, gaining land south of the Ohio River. As unpopular legislation, such as the Stamp Act 1765, engendered growing discontent with British rule, Dunmore changed his attitude towards the colonists; he became frustrated with the lack of respect towards the British Crown. Dunmore's popularity worsened after, following orders, he attempted to prevent the election of representatives to the Second Continental Congress.
On April 21, 1775, he ordered the seizure of the colony's store of gunpowder, an action that resulted in the formation of an angry mob in Williamsburg, the capital city. The colonists argued that the ammunition belonged to them, not to the British Crown, and demanded compensation or its return. The crowd was calmed before violence erupted and payment for the powder was eventually extracted, but Dunmore angrily swore that "if any injury or insult was offered to himself [...] he would declare freedom to the slaves and reduce the City of Williamsburg to ashes". This undiplomatic threat alienated many of the slaveholding class who had been his most important supporters, and accelerated Dunmore's loss of effectiveness as actual governor of the colony.
As the continuing unrest threatened to become violent, Dunmore fled the Governor's Palace on June 8 and took refuge aboard the frigate HMS Fowey at Yorktown. For several months, Dunmore's small navy raided the rebels' military supplies and looted riverside plantations, while inviting the slaves working in the fields to enlist. On November 14, 1775, Dunmore seized on the success of a minor skirmish with rebel militiamen to officially publicize his proclamation, making it known that Virginia was in a state of martial law, and that slaves desirous of freedom could obtain it by joining the British Army.
Dunmore's Proclamation only applied to slaves who were held by individuals opposed to the British ("appertaining to Rebels"). This meant that if slaves were held by people who were pro-British, they could keep their slaves. This gives further evidence to the thesis that Dunmore's Proclamation was motivated by the desire to win the war rather than by genuine concern for the slaves.
Dunmore's Proclamation
In the official document, he declared martial law and adjudged all revolutionaries as traitors to the British Crown. Furthermore, the document declared "all indentured servants, Negroes, or others [...] free that are able and willing to bear arms." Dunmore expected such a revolt to have several effects. Primarily, it would bolster his own forces, which, cut off from reinforcements from British-held Boston, numbered only around 300. Secondarily, he hoped that such an action would create a fear among the colonists of a general slave uprising and would force them to abandon the revolution.
Colonial reaction
Colonial leaders were quick to express their outrage over this escalation. On December 4, the Continental Congress recommended to Virginia that they resist Dunmore "to the uttermost". Virginia's chief statesmen, assembled in the Fourth Virginia Convention, responded on December 14, 1775, with an declaration that all fugitive slaves would be executed:
Newspapers such as The Virginia Gazette published the proclamation in full, and patrols were organized to look for any slaves attempting to take Dunmore up on his offer. The Gazette not only criticized Dunmore for offering freedom to only those slaves belonging to revolutionaries who were willing to serve him, but also questioned whether he would be true to his word, suggesting that he would sell the escaped slaves in the West Indies. It was also noted that Dunmore himself was a slaveholder. The paper therefore cautioned slaves to "be not then [...] tempted by the proclamation to ruin your selves." Ironically, due to the pressing need for war funds, the penalty of execution for runaways was frequently set aside so that they could be sold, particularly to the West Indies.
Estimates of the number of slaves that reached Dunmore vary, but generally range between 800 and 2,000. The escaped slaves Dunmore accepted were enlisted into what was known as Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment. The only notable battle in which Dunmore's regiment participated was the Battle of Great Bridge in early December 1775, which was a decisive British loss.
Dunmore's dream of a massive slave army was ultimately unrealized, as his forces were decimated by outbreaks of smallpox and typhoid fever almost as soon as they started gathering in cramped Royal Navy ships and encampments. When Dunmore finally left the colony in 1776 he took only 300 former slaves with him, all that remained of about 2,000 that had flocked to his promise of freedom.
In 1779, British General Sir Henry Clinton issued the Philipsburg Proclamation, which freed slaves owned by revolutionaries throughout the rebel states, even if they did not enlist in the British Army. It resulted in a significantly larger number of runaways. It is estimated that approximately 20,000 attempted to leave their owners and join the British over the course of the entire war. At the end of the war, the British relocated about 3,000 former slaves to Nova Scotia.
See also
References
Bibliography
- David, James Corbett (2013). Dunmore's New World: The Extraordinary Life of a Royal Governor in Revolutionary America. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-3425-9.
- Gilbert, Alan. Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence (University of Chicago Press, 2012)
- Kukla, Jon (2017). Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-9081-4.
- Piecuch, Jim. Three Peoples, One King: Loyalists, Indians, and Slaves in the Revolutionary South, 1775–1782 (Univ of South Carolina Press, 2008)
- Pybus, Cassandra (2005). "Jefferson's Faulty Math: The Question of Slave Defections in the American Revolution". The William and Mary Quarterly. 3. 62 (2): 243–264. doi:10.2307/3491601. JSTOR 3491601.
- Quarles, Benjamin (1958). "Lord Dunmore as Liberator". The William and Mary Quarterly. 3. 15 (4): 494–507. doi:10.2307/2936904. JSTOR 2936904.