Black Americans Fighting for Literal Freedom
Lord Dunmore’s proclamation did not win the British many hearts and minds amongst colonial whites. However, it won the hearts and minds of many colonial blacks. It also helped alleviate a severe manpower shortage that had confronted Virginia’s British governor by increasing his side’s manpower, and simultaneously reducing that available to rebellious colonists. With armed and hastily trained escaped slaves, Dunmore doubled his available forces within a few weeks. Unfortunately for him and his black recruits, diseases – particularly typhoid and smallpox – swept the escaped slaves. The standards of medical care and sanitation in those days were generally low even in ideal conditions. Conditions in the camps hastily thrown up for the new recruits were far from ideal. Epidemics swept the runaways’ camps, killed them off almost as fast as they were assembled, and prevented Dunmore from raising the vast slave armies he had envisioned.
Nonetheless, the survivors were assembled in what came to be known as Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment, led by white officers and sergeants. On November 15th, 1775, the new soldiers got their first taste of combat in the small scale Battle of Kemp’s Landing. It was a victory over colonial militia, in which a militia colonel was captured by a former slave fighting for the British. The easy victory made Dunmore overconfident, and convinced him that the Patriots were cowards. A few weeks later, on December 9th, 1775, the Ethiopian Regiment fought in the Battle of Great Bridge. The British were tricked by a double agent to make a frontal assault across a bridge, and were decisively repulsed. The Patriot victory compelled the British to evacuate Norfolk.