John Murray, Fourth Earl of Dunmore, was Virginia's last royal governor. He became a hero among Virginians for his conduct during the Indian Wars of 1774, which were the result of escalating violence between Virginia colonists moving west and existing Indigenous people living on those lands. Dunmore’s popularity did not last long. As revolutionary spirit and violent tensions increased in Virginia, Lord Dunmore’s actions turned more and more colonists against British rule.
- April 1775 - He seized the colony’s ammunition stores in Williamsburg and moved them to a British warship.
- June 8, 1775 - He fled Williamsburg to stay aboard a British ship near Yorktown.
- Fall 1775 - British soldiers conduct raids against Virginia militia supplies across the Tidewater region.
Dunmore’s proclamation was drafted on November 7th, 1775, and published on November 14. The document declares martial law and requires everyone capable of bearing arms to fight for the King or be considered a traitor. Most importantly, Dunmore states, "I do hereby farther declare all indented servants, Negroes, or others (appertaining to rebels) free, that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining his Majesty’s troops, as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this colony to a proper sense of their duty, to his Majesty’s crown and dignity." Essentially, this declares that any indentured servant or enslaved person belonging to a “rebel” or person fighting against the King, will be free if they decide to fight for the British.
In reaction to the proclamation, Williamsburg’s Virginia Gazette printed a letter on November 25, 1775, warning indentured servants and enslaved people to not be “tempted by the proclamation to ruin your selves" and threatening that the British may sell them in the West Indies. The Virginia Convention issued its own proclamation on December 14, stating the enslaved people who joined the British “may return in safety to their duty and escape the punishment due to their crimes, we hereby promise pardon to them.
Despite this, enslaved people flooded to British lines. Over the next month, Dunmore recruited 300 Black men for “Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment” with White Loyalists as officers. They were armed and outfitted in military uniforms inscribed with the words "Liberty to Slaves." This regiment saw action at the Battle of Great Bridge on December 9, 1775. Though it was a small battle, the Virginia militia defeated Dunmore and drove him out of Virginia, marking the departure of a major symbol of the king’s power in Virginia.
Ultimately, Dunmore’s Proclamation had mixed results. The declaration of martial law further inflamed anti-British sentiments and the decision to free enslaved people in Virginia increased fear of an enslaved rebellion and raised further concerns about property rights. It also convinced many wealthy white men who were previously neutral or Loyalists to Britain to side against King George III. However, many Black individuals viewed the offer as a path to freedom from enslavement – a stark reminder that while the American Revolution was a war grounded in the rhetoric of “freedom and liberty for all,” those ideals applied to only a select part of the population in what would become the United States of America.
You can learn more about Lord Dunmore's life here: John Murray, Fourth Earl of Dunmore