Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation begins with his own name and credentials: “His Majesty’s Lieutenant and Governor General of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, and Vice Admiral of the same.” (“Lieutenant” here signifies not a junior officer but rather invokes the literal meaning of one who “holds the place of” the king.) These credentials entitled Dunmore to make the following proclamation. Although Dunmore says he had sought an “Accommodation” (a reconciliation) between the unhappy rebels and the British, matters had reached a point where something had to be done to force the rebels to recognize the authority of the Crown. Rebel colonists were forming an army and firing on British troops and “well-disposed subjects of this Colony”—those loyal to Britain—alike. These people were committing treason as well as disrupting the peace, order, and justice of the colony; this state of affairs could not be allowed to continue, and the proclamation aimed to put a stop to it.

Civil laws did not seem to be working toward this end anymore, however. Thus, Dunmore declares that martial law had to be instituted in the rebellious colony. He points out that the power to institute martial law lay with him, a power given to him by the king and one he would use to restore the peace. Furthermore, so that this restoration of peace and order could be more swiftly executed, Dunmore summoned every man capable of bearing arms to report to “His Majesty’s Standard.” To summon men to report to the king’s standard was tantamount to saying “Rally around the flag” or, more literally, “Come and join our side in the fighting.” Those who did not join the British against the rebels were to be regarded as traitors, such treason being punishable by confiscation of land or even loss of life.

What follows is the part of the proclamation that elicited the strongest response. Dunmore declares free all “indented [indentured] Servants, Negroes, or others”—black or white—belonging to “Rebels” who are “able and willing to bear Arms” in the company of the British troops to fight against the traitors. Note that the offer applied only to able-bodied men—a point that would later be seized upon by colonial rebels. Dunmore took this action for “speedily reducing this Colony to a proper Sense of their Duty”—putting them in their proper place, as it were. This measure was not altruistic; it did not come from any sense that slavery was inherently wrong. Dunmore himself owned slaves and by most accounts was a harsh master. And, as colonial governor, he had refused to sign a bill stopping the slave trade into Virginia. The Virginia House of Burgesses wanted to pass this bill to hurt the British economy, since international slave trade was controlled by Britain. In this context, it is no wonder that Dunmore withheld his signature.

Emancipating the slaves of his enemy was an act of war. There were a number of reasons for Dunmore to take this step. It would increase the numbers of his army, diminished through desertion and harassment by the Patriots. He hoped that as slaves left their masters, those masters would decide to stay home to care for their property and their families. The fear of a mass slave insurrection would also turn the attention of planters from the British. Dunmore also realized that if he did not get some of these people on his side, he would eventually be compelled to fight them.

The last part of Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation orders all people to “retain their Quit-rents, or any other Taxes due or that may become due, in their own Custody, till such a time as Peace may be again restored to this at present most unhappy Country.” Quit-rents were a type of rent or property tax due to the royal treasury and were used to cover the expenses of royal colonial government. Most officers who collected these taxes were British or Loyalists, and sending these men to collect these taxes during the insurrection put them in grave danger.

Dunmore closes conventionally by stating where and when he was issuing the proclamation: “the 7th day of November in the Sixteenth Year of His Majesty’s Reign,” on board the William. He ends with “God save the King,” the common declaration appended to documents and toasts, a sign of loyalty for subjects and officers of the monarch.