Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment: 800 Enslaved Men Join British Forces

Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, issued his proclamation offering freedom to enslaved people belonging to rebel colonists who could bear arms and reach British lines. Roughly 800 enslaved men joined his Ethiopian Regiment, wearing sashes reading 'Liberty to Slaves.' The regiment fought at the Battle of Kemp's Landing and Great Bridge. By mid-1776 smallpox devastated the regiment; survivors were abandoned on Gwynn Island. Some were recaptured and re-enslaved. A few hundred eventually reached freedom in Nova Scotia, Sierra Leone, or the Caribbean via British evacuation.