A PERFECT FRENZY

Accounts of the American Revolution’s outbreak often focus on Massachusetts, but there was plenty of action in Virginia, the largest colony.

Journalist and historian Lawler, author of The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, introduces John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore (1730-1809), Virginia’s royal governor from 1771 until he fled in 1775. As governor he represented British authority but could make no laws and possessed no police or military force. This caused no problems at first because he and Virginia’s elite shared the same goal—to enrich themselves by acquiring huge lands beyond the Appalachians by expelling the Indians (already expelled from Virginia itself). After a few years, his popularity plummeted as he tried to discourage opposition to new parliamentary taxes and then suppress an increasingly organized rebellion. To strengthen his minuscule forces, he issued the famous Dunmore’s Proclamation in November 1775, promising freedom to slaves who volunteered to bear arms for the crown. This produced—in addition to outrage among Virginia patriots—a few thousand Black volunteers. Formed into fighting units, they skirmished with rebels and didn’t do badly. But preoccupied elsewhere, Britain gave Dunmore little help. After a year of steady retreating, he abandoned Virginia, sailing off with ships packed with loyalists and escaped slaves. He continued to urge superiors to recruit enslaved people. Many considered it a good idea, but it was never official policy. Lawler joins a new generation of scholars who have determined that the earl’s proclamation makes him a pioneering hero in the campaign against slavery. He also gives Britain high marks for refusing to return the former slaves. This infuriated America’s leaders, Washington and Jefferson included, who maintained that they were stolen property who rightfully belonged to their owners.

A convincing rehabilitation of Dunmore, plus another dollop of clay added to the feet of our Founding Fathers.