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The Proclamation declared martial law and promised freedom for slaves of American patriots who left their masters and joined the royal forces. 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 uprising would create panic amongst the colonists and would force them to abandon the revolution. News of Dunmore's plan spread through the colony before the formal proclamation. In April 1775 a group of slaves offered their services to the royal governor. Though he ordered them away, the colonial slaveholders remained suspicious of his intentions. On June 8, 1775, he abandoned Governor's Palace in Williamsburg and took refuge aboard the frigate HMS Fowey at Yorktown. For several months Dunmore replenished his forces and supplies by conducting raids and inviting slaves to join him. The proclamation was drafted on November 7 and published a week later. In the document he declared martial law and adjudged all patriots as traitors to the crown. Furthermore, it declared "all indentured servants, Negroes, or others...free that are able and willing to bear arms..."Virginians were outraged, and responded immediately. 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 patriots 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; the paper therefore cautioned slaves to "Be not then...tempted by the proclamation to ruin your selves." As very few slaves were literate, this was more a symbolic move than anything. It was also noted that Dunmore himself was a slaveholder. On December 13 the Virginia Convention responded in kind with a proclamation of its own, declaring that any slaves who returned to their masters within ten days would be pardoned, but those who did not would be punished harshly. Although few slaves reached Dunmore (estimates vary, but generally range between 800 and 2000), it is estimated that up to 100,000 attempted to leave their masters and join the British. Those escaped slaves who managed to join the British became known as Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment. The strategy was ultimately unsuccessful as Dunmore's forces were decimated by a smallpox outbreak less than a year later. However, as the British were fleeing they took 300 of the former slaves with them. Although seemingly minuscule, more slaves found their freedom through this than any other way until the Civil War. |
