Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation

October 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (October 1, 1776).

“A Negro man named MOSES … has been endeavouring to … join the ministerial army.”

Moses, an enslaved man, made his own declaration of independence in 1776 when he liberated himself by running away from his enslaver.  Charles Read of Evesham, “in the county of Burlington,” New Jersey, provided a brief account in an advertisement on the front page of the October 1, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet.  According to Read, Moses, “about five feet four inches high, a thick well set fellow,” made his escape on September 9.  When he went away, he was wearing “a short light coloured coat, with binding of the same colour a pair of strong new shoes, with large plated buckles, a pair of homespun linen trowsers, and a black stock with a steel buckle.”  That should have made Moses easy to recognize, but there was also a chance that he would change clothes since he “stole and took with him, a blue great-coat with white metal buttons” and “the other part of his cloaths [were] not known” to Read.

While those details were specific to Moses, his enslaver followed a formula for advertisements that described enslaved people who liberated themselves by running away.  The next part of Read’s account, however, revealed that current events played a part in Moses’s decision about when to seek his freedom.  Read lamented that Moses “has been endeavouring to prevail upon the Negroes in this neighbourhood” in New Jersey “to go with him to join the ministerial army.”  In other words, Moses planned to join the British and encouraged other enslaved people to join him.  He did not merely hope to elude his enslaver by getting away from Evesham and keeping a low profile elsewhere; instead, he aimed to secure his freedom by “join[ing] the ministerial army.”  Moses almost certainly knew that nearly a year earlier John Murray, Lord Dunmore, the king’s governor in Virginia, offered freedom to enslaved people “appertaining to Rebels” (or enslaved by Patriots) in exchange for “joining his Majesty’s troops, as soon as may be.”  Many enslaved men and women responded to the call, alarming and enraging both their enslavers and other residents of Virginia.  The final grievance in the Declaration of Independence referred to Dunmore’s Proclamation, stating that the king “has excited domestic insurrections amongst us” by encouraging enslaved people to fight against those who enslaved them.  Moses left Evesham just as the British occupation of New York began.  He likely saw his best opportunity yet to secure his freedom.  That gave additional urgency to Read’s efforts to capture him.  Readers of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, he declared, should assist not only for the “TEN DOLLARS REWARD” but also out of a sense of patriotism.  Read called on “every lover of his country [to] endeavour to apprehend so daring a villain” who had the audacity to seek his freedom by siding with those who promised him liberty rather than a life of enslavement.  Moses was not the first or only such “villain” featured in newspaper advertisements during the Revolutionary War, yet stories of joining the British were not a common element of what have become known as “runaway advertisements.”  Though rare, advertisements that reported enslaved people sought to join the British appeared on occasion, supplementing similar stories that circulated in conversation and in print.  Read meant to condemn Moses, but the additional details he provided about the circumstances of his escape contributed to a complicated and nuanced narrative of the American Revolution.

February 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (February 10, 1776).

“Runaway Negroes … going to the Governor.”

For several weeks in January and February 1776, the Virginia Gazette carried an advertisement about a canoe recovered from “some runaway Negroes” making their way down the James River.  John Watkins described the canoe and noted that the enslaved men also possessed “sundry Clothes, some of which were stolen, and have since been claimed by the Owners.”  He assumed that the remaining clothes belonged to the enslaved men.  Watkins offered the canoe to its rightful owner and the clothes to the enslavers of the Black men who sought to liberate themselves.  He did not, however, indicate that those men had been captured and imprisoned until their enslavers claimed them.  Perhaps the men managed to make their escape when Watkins seized the canoe.

Whatever happened, Watkins believed that the men “were going to Governor.”  That detail meant a lot to eighteenth-century readers of the Virginia Gazette and even more to enslaved people residing in the colony.  On November 7, 1775, John Murray, the earl of Dunmore and royal governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation that declared martial law in the colony.  He hoped to restore order as the fighting that started at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts spread to Virginia.  To that end, he “declare[d] all indented Servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to Rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining His MAJESTY’s Troops as soon as may be.”  In other words, Dunmore offered freedom to enslaved people (and indentured servants and other unfree laborers) who fled from their enslavers, joined his forces, and fought for the king (but only those Black people enslaved by Patriots since the governor did not want to alienate Loyalists).  As word spread, enslaved men, women, and children flocked to Dunmore’s lines.  The men who stole the canoe that Watkins advertised had good reason for acting when they did.  They recognized what may very well have been their best possible chance to make good on their escape and achieve freedom.  As colonizers complained about their figurative enslavement by Parliament, enslaved people saw this offer by the British as a beacon of liberty.  Several months later, the Declaration of Independence counted Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation among the many grievances against George III.  The charge that the king “has excited domestic insurrections amongst us” referred to Dunmore’s efforts to rally enslaved people to join him in fighting against the “Rebels” who opposed the king.