22. Epidemics in British Black Camps
By arming and hastily training the escaped slaves who flocked to his lines by the thousands, Lord Dunmore, was able to double his available forces within a few weeks. Unfortunately for him and for his black recruits, diseases – particularly typhoid and smallpox – swept through the escaped slaves.
Back then, the standards of medical care and sanitation were generally low even in ideal conditions, and conditions in the camps hastily thrown up for the new black recruits were far from ideal. Epidemics swept the runaways’ camps, killing them off almost as fast as they were assembled. It prevented Dunmore from raising the vast slave armies he had once envisioned.