This November marks the 249th anniversary of Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation, the effort by Virginia’s last royal governor John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore, to arm enslaved Black people to fight the mounting Patriot rebellion. The idea of enlisting enslaved men to fight for the Crown had been brewing for some time, partly to play on fears of slave rebellion that regularly coursed through a colony where just over 40 percent of the population was held in bondage. Read more about: “Liberty ...
