Lord Dunmore issued his Proclamation just a week earlier, but the response was much stronger than anticipated, probably because—who knew!—people hate being slaves.

While the Proclamation only applied to the Virginia colony, because Dunmore had no authority conferred upon him anywhere else, a huge number of slaves and otherwise indentured servants from throughout the thirteen colonies fled to the British side of the lines.

(We have to say “throughout” because slavery was a thing in the north at this point; it just wasn’t nearly as common as in the south.)

This led to thousands of “American” blacks living ex-patriate lives throughout the British Empire after the Revolution.

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