Lord Dunmore's Proclamation On Slave Emancipation

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The issue of abolishing slavery was left out of the Declaration of Independence because in 1776 there was already action being taken for slaves and it is stated in Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation on Slave Emancipation (1775). Earl of Dunmore, John Murray, a royal governor and a Scottish aristocrat, wrote the Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation on Slave Emancipation, it was during a war and it grew out of Dunmore’s efforts to counter an impending attack on his capital of Williamsburg by the patriot military in the spring of 1775, when he threatened to free and arm slaves to defend the cause of royal government. During the time he was retreating, he was gathering slaves. His proclamation was commanding Virginians to support the crown or be judged. Traitors now offered freedom to all slaves and indentured servants belonging to rebels and able to bear arms for the crown. Several hundred slaves, many with their families joined him. The slaves enlisted in what Dunmore called his “Ethiopian Regiment” and formed a large majority of the royal troops who first defeated patriot forces but fell victim to disease and attack. John Murray’s proclamation offered freedom to those who would flee from rebel masters and serve the crown. …show more content…

British officials however, never rejected the proclamation’s message and soon established an alliance with black Americans that brought thousands of escaped southern slaves to the side of the British forces operating in the south. The role and plight of these fugitives during and after the Revolutionary War would alter the course of a host of black lives and help swell settlement, mostly in Britain, for an end to slavery and the slave