Today is the anniversary of Dunmore’s Proclamation, a historical document signed on November 7, 1775, by John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, royal governor of the British colony of Virginia. The proclamation declared martial law in the colony, and promised freedom for “all indented servants, negroes, or others”, who joined the British Army.
Formally proclaimed on November 15, its publication prompted between 800 and 2,000 slaves (from both Patriot and Loyalist owners) to run away and enlist with Dunmore. It also raised a furor among Virginia’s slave-owning elites (including those who had been sympathetic to Britain), to whom the possibility of a slave rebellion was a major fear. The proclamation ultimately failed in meeting Dunmore’s objectives; he was forced out of the colony in 1776, taking about 300 former slaves with him.
Later British commanders over the course of the American Revolutionary War followed Dunmore’s model in enticing slaves to defect—the 1779 Philipsburg Proclamation, which applied across all the colonies, was more successful. By the end of the war, at least 20,000 slaves had escaped from plantations into British service.
Sir Joshua Reynolds – John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore
Tiddles
Doggies…
Maybe go to both??
Today is the birthday, in 1996, of New Zealand singer-songwriter, Ella Yelich-O’Connor, known by her stage name Lorde who had the 2013 worldwide hit ‘Royals’, making her the first New Zealand solo artist to have a No.1 song in the United States. Her second studio album Melodrama topped charts in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Canada. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcIKh6sBtc
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