Existing comment:
Dunmore's Proclamation, 1775
Reproduced from the Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser
Original on view in The Story of Virginia exhibition
To undermine patriot rebels, Lord Dunmore, Virginia's royal governor, issued a proclamation in November 1775 offering freedom to enslaved men who fought for the British. "Dunmore's Proclamation" spurred a tidal wave of runaways in Virginia and, as word spread, throughout the colonies -- more than 15,000 during the war. |