Virginia's Response to Dunmore's Proclamation

Lord Dunmore issued his proclamation on November 7, 1775, from the HMS William anchored in the Chesapeake, offering freedom to enslaved people belonging to rebel colonists who could bear arms and join the British forces. The proclamation terrified Virginia's planter class and electrified the colony's enslaved population, with hundreds making dangerous attempts to reach British lines.

Virginia's revolutionary leaders, meeting in Williamsburg through their conventions, responded with a combination of alarm and propaganda. They publicly dismissed the proclamation as a desperate measure while privately understanding that it struck at the foundation of Virginia's plantation economy. The convention passed measures threatening severe punishment for enslaved people who attempted to reach the British. The episode exposed the irreconcilable tension at the heart of Virginia's revolutionary project.