IMPORTANT EARLY BRITISH PRINTING OF "LORD DUNMORE'S PROCLAMATION" DECLARING MARTIAL LAW  & OFFERING FREEDOM TO THE ENSLAVED AND INDENTURED SERVANTS

The Edinburgh Evening Courant. Edinburgh, [Scotland, Great Britain]: Printed for R. Fleming, 15 January 1776. 4 pages, folio, disbound. Approx. 11 x 17 in. 

An important early printing in Great Britain of the seminal Proclamation by Lord Dunmore promising emancipation to enslaved men who joined his Loyalist cause. 

John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore (1730-1809) was a British Army officer who served as the governor of Virginia from 1771 until his ultimate escape back to Great Britain in 1776. He was a deeply unpopular governor as he had no natural political acumen, and his Loyalist allegiance was well known.

At the start of rising hostilities in April 1775, Lord Dunmore ordered the gunpowder from the Williamsburg Magazine to be removed in secret, enraging the colonists. Tensions continued to rise, and on June 8th, Dunmore fled the Governor's Palace aboard the HMS Fowey anchored in the York River. Joining a small British naval force, he began raiding coastal plantations and attempting to entice enslaved people to join him. 

On 15 November 1776, Dunmore publicly announced a Proclamation, signed on November 7th, which declared martial law in Virginia and called for all men able to bear arms to fight under his banner. Most importantly, however, the proclamation offered freedom to those held in bondage by patriots if they joined his cause. Within a month, at least 300 Black men had joined Dunmore's "Royal Ethiopian Regiment," eventually growing to 800. 

News of Dunmore's Proclamation spread quickly, with the text printed throughout the colonies' newspapers; for example, the text was printed in the 6 December 1775 issue of the Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser (c.f. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC01706). Fear and anger spread quickly among the slave-owning colonists. Slave patrols were set up nearly immediately in Virginia, and other colonies set up preventative measures. 

The printing here represents one of the earliest British printings of the proclamation, notably in the Edinburgh Evening Courant, a Whig publication issued thrice weekly in Dunmore's own native Scotland. The text reads in full: 

"As I have ever entertained Hopes that an Accommodation might have taken Place between Great-Britain and this Colony, without being compelled by my Duty to this most disagreeable but now absolutely necessary Step, rendered so by a Body of armed Men unlawfully assembled, firing on His Majesty’s Tenders, and the Formation of an Army, and that Army now on their March to attack his Majesty’s Troops and destroy the well disposed Subjects of this Colony. To defeat such treasonable Purposes, and that all such Traitors, and their Abettors, may be brought to Justice, and that the Peace, and good Order of this Colony may be again restored, which the ordinary Course of the Civil Law is unable to effect; I have thought fit to issue this my Proclamation, hereby declaring, that until the aforesaid good Purposes can be obtained, I do, in Virtue of the Power and Authority to ME given, by his Majesty, determine to execute Martial Law, and cause the same to be executed throughout this Colony: and to the end that Peace and good Order may the sooner be restored, I do require every Person capable of bearing Arms to resort to his Majesty’s STANDARD, or be looked upon as Traitors to his Majesty’s Crown and Government, and thereby become liable to the Penalty the Law inflicts upon such Offences; such as forfeiture of Life, confiscation of Lands, &c. &c. And I do hereby farther declare all indentured 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, for the more speedily reducing this Colony to a proper Sense of their Duty, to his Majesty’s Crown and Dignity. I do further order, and require, all his Majesty’s Liege Subjects, to retain their Quitrents, or any other Taxes due or that may become due, in their own Custody, till such Time as Peace may be again restored to this at present most unhappy Country, or demanded of them for their former salutary Purposes, by Officers properly authorised to receive the same.

He would continue to attempt to launch a Loyalist counterattack to retake Virginia, but after the burning of Norfolk, he would return to Great Britain in August 1776.

This significant newspaper issue is enhanced further with other reporting on the Revolutionary War, including news updates and troop counts across the colonies. 

An important early printing of the significant proclamation. 

VERY RARE. We found no other copies at the time of cataloging.

[American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe] [Broadsides, Ephemera, Printing, Posters, Handbills, Documents, Newspapers] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]