January 1775

On November 7, 1775, Virginia's royal governor Lord Dunmore declared martial law and offered freedom to enslaved men belonging to rebel colonists who could reach British lines and bear arms. Within weeks, roughly 800 men had escaped to join him. They were organized into the Ethiopian Regiment, whose uniforms reportedly bore the motto 'Liberty to Slaves.' The proclamation terrified Virginia slaveholders and hardened Southern opposition to British rule.

Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment eventually numbered between 800 and 2,000 men. They saw combat at the Battle of Kemp's Landing (November 1775), where they helped capture two American colonels. At the Battle of Great Bridge (December 1775) the regiment was defeated and Dunmore forced offshore. Smallpox then devastated the regiment; by mid-1776 hundreds had died. Survivors evacuated with British forces, with some reaching Nova Scotia, the Bahamas, and eventually Sierra Leone.

An estimated 5,000 Black men served in the Continental Army and state militias during the Revolutionary War, fighting at Bunker Hill, Trenton, Yorktown, and other engagements. Salem Poor, a freed Black man, was commended for gallantry at Bunker Hill. Peter Salem is credited with shooting British Major Pitcairn at the same battle. Many were promised freedom for service; most were returned to bondage when the war ended. Southern states refused to arm enslaved people at all, and Washington initially barred Black enlistment before reversing course under manpower pressure.

On March 6, 1775, Prince Hall and 14 free Black men in Boston were initiated into Irish Military Lodge No. 441 — the only Masonic lodge that would accept Black members. In 1784 they received a charter from the Grand Lodge of England forming African Lodge No. 459, the first Black Masonic lodge in America. Prince Hall Freemasonry became a cornerstone institution of free Black civic life, providing mutual aid, social networks, and a platform for anti-slavery activism in Northern cities.

In the summer and fall of 1775, as news of Lord Dunmore's threatened proclamation spread through the colonies ahead of its November issuance, North Carolina authorities uncovered evidence of a planned insurrection in several counties — particularly in the lower Cape Fear region. Enslaved people had been meeting in secret, sharing information about Dunmore's offer and reportedly planning a coordinated uprising timed to the spread of British military activity along the coast. North Carolina's colonial Committee of Safety responded with emergency measures: increased patrols, searches of enslaved quarters for weapons, restrictions on the movement of Black people (enslaved and free), and the execution of suspected leaders. The episode demonstrated that news of potential freedom traveled rapidly through the enslaved community's communication networks and that the coming Revolution would be a moment of calculated decision-making for enslaved people across the South.

In July 1775, the Continental Army's Cambridge headquarters formally prohibited the enlistment of Black men — free or enslaved. George Washington and a council of generals agreed to the exclusion, partly to appease Southern slaveholding delegates. The policy was reversed within months as manpower shortages became acute, but the initial exclusion reflected the Revolution's fundamental ambivalence toward Black freedom and service.