Lord Dunmore

John Murray, the Fourth Earl of Dunmore, more commonly known as Lord Dunmore, was born in Scotland in 1730.  In September of 1771, he became the Royal Governor of the British Colony of Virginia in North America.  He was to be its last.  As we know, Virginia declared its independence on the Fourth of July, 1776.  Such independence was won in armed conflict, fighting side by side with twelve other colonies, and agreed to by the British in the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783.

On January 1, 1863, US President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all slaves held in the eleven US States that were in rebellion, including Virginia.  Over 179,000 African-Americans, both free men and runaway slaves, fought in the Union Army during the Civil War.  Near the end of the war, the Confederate Army agreed to accept those of African descent as “volunteers” in their army.  Few did.

So what do Lord Dunmore and President Lincoln have in common?  On November 14, 1775, the former issued the “Proclamation of Lord Dunmore,” which stated that, in order to put down a growing insurrection against his government, he called upon all able-bodied men in Virginia to join his armed forces or be considered as the enemy.  He also stated that all “Negroes” (owned as slaves by those in rebellion) to be “free that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining His Majesty’s troops.”  About 50,000 African-Americans (mostly runaway slaves) fought on the British/Loyalist side during the Revolutionary War, ten times the amount that fought on the Patriot side.

Six of the thirteen original States of the United States of America were slave societies, including Virginia.  (The others were Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.)  Most all of the rich and powerful men in Virginia in 1775 owned slaves.  Those included four of the first five Presidents of the United States:  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe.  Many of the rich and powerful men of Virginia were already on the Patriot side in 1775.  After the Proclamation of Lord Dunmore, more of those rich and powerful men joined up with the Patriots.  Their property (slaves) was about to be confiscated by the Governor, something they could not tolerate.  Instead of supporting the Governor to safeguard their property rights, they joined the opposition that promised to protect such rights.  Lord Dunmore’s proclamation backfired.

The last battle of the American Revolution was fought at Yorktown, Virginia in October of 1781.  After the surrender by British General Cornwallis, a couple thousand British troops, former slaves, were returned to their masters, including US General George Washington and Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson.  At the end of the war and as part of the Treaty of Paris, about 3,000 runaway slaves left New York City on British ships that headed for new lives in British Nova Scotia.

Abraham Lincoln joins Lord Dunmore as two North American political leaders whose proclamations offered freedom to African-American slaves.  It is an irony of history that some of those who, in 1776, wanted freedom from Great Britain, were unwilling to share such freedom with all the other human beings in their care.

This story of these two men is especially important as we near the 150th anniversary of both the end of the Civil War, the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to Union General Ulysses. S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, and the assassination of President Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. on Good Friday, April 14, 1865.  The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, both the work of Lincoln, effectively abolished slavery in the United States of America.  Thankfully, Lincoln succeeded where Dunmore did not.