Liberty to Slaves: The Black Soldiers Who Fought America Before It Would Fight for Them
In 1775, hundreds of enslaved men in Virginia took a gamble that few dared to imagine. They fled bondage not to follow a general or defend a flag, but to chase a word—a word that had never been meant for them. Freedom. This is the story of Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, the first Black fighting force of the American Revolution, and the irony they made visible at the very heart of the American founding.
Don Troiani. Brave Men as Ever Fought. Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia.
Blank Black Faces
They had no uniforms when they arrived. No ranks. No provisions. Most had no shoes. But they came anyway.
They came from the tobacco fields of the Tidewater. From the kitchens of Williamsburg, from the slave quarters of Norfolk, from the winding paths between cabins and cane fields where no man was ever allowed to walk free. They came because someone—someone with power—had finally spoken the word aloud.
Freedom.
And not in prayer or protest, but in proclamation. From the deck of a British warship off the Virginia coast, the King’s governor, John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, had promised emancipation to any enslaved man who would take up arms against the American rebels. Hundreds responded. They fled. They enlisted. They marched.
Joshua Reynolds. John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore. ca. 1765. Oil on canvas. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
From Slavery to Soldiers
The formation of the Ethiopian Regiment in 1775–76 was not a footnote in imperial strategy. It was a moment that revealed the central paradox of the American founding: that the rhetoric of liberty could be weaponized not just by the colonists seeking independence, but by the enslaved seeking their humanity.
These were not professional soldiers. They were carpenters, coopers, grooms, field hands. Their entire lives had been lived in service of the lash and ledger, but in Dunmore’s call they saw something revolutionary: a chance to fight back. A chance to become the subject of history, not just its collateral.
John Murray, Earl of Dunmore. A Proclamation. November 7, 1775. Broadside. Library of Congress,
Freedom by Empire’s Hand
Dunmore’s Proclamation was not an act of conscience—it was a tactic. His goal was to weaken the rebellion by striking at its foundation: slave labor. But regardless of his motives, the result was undeniable. He had opened a door.
Hundreds crossed through it.
Once behind British lines, the men were organized into what the army would call the Ethiopian Regiment. They wore makeshift uniforms—black coats, often too large or too worn, and a white sash emblazoned with three words that would have been unthinkable just weeks before:
Liberty to Slaves.
They drilled. They marched. They learned to fire muskets and fix bayonets. For the first time, they stood with weapons in their hands and the promise of freedom strapped to their chests.
Virginia Museum of History & Culture. Reproduction of “Liberty to Slaves” Smock, Ethiopian Regiment (ca. 1775–1776). Exhibition photo. Richmond, VA.
Kemp’s Landing and the First Victory
On November 15, 1775, the Ethiopian Regiment joined its first engagement at Kemp’s Landing. The clash was swift. Patriot militia—ill-trained and underestimating their Black opponents—fired first, but the response was disciplined and precise.
The rebels fled. Two Patriot officers were captured. One of them, Joseph Hutchings, had once claimed legal ownership over the man who now carried a musket in the King’s uniform.
For the enslaved, this was not just a battle—it was a reckoning.
Skirmish at Kemp’s Landing (Historical Marker KV-27). Princess Anne County, Virginia. Erected 2013.
The Trap at Great Bridge
Three weeks later, the Regiment marched again—this time to Great Bridge, where they met a different enemy: earthworks, cannon, high ground, and a dug-in Patriot force.
The road was narrow and the ground wet and exposed. As the Black soldiers advanced, they were hit with disciplined volleys. Cut down in open ground. The order to retreat came too late. When it did, chaos reigned.
What was left of the regiment fell back to Dunmore’s fleet. But the ships were not refuge—they were death traps.
Anonymous. A View of the Great Bridge near Norfolk in Virginia… ca. 1775. Manuscript map. LOC.
The Ship Holds and the Collapse
Below deck, the air turned foul. Smallpox swept through the crowded holds like wildfire. Men who had survived the whip, who had escaped the plantation and the musket fire, died not in arms but in silence—in darkness, pressed shoulder to shoulder, beneath a dark and fetid hold.
By the time Dunmore evacuated Virginia in August 1776, the Ethiopian Regiment no longer existed.
But the men who had formed it had already done something permanent.
American Colortype Company. Lord Dunmore Escapes to a British Warship, 1775. Lithograph. ca. 1900–1920.
The Real Revolution
For one year, they had stood in uniform. For one year, they had faced down their former enslavers. For one year, they had made visible the contradiction that pulsed at the heart of the American Revolution.
They did not fight for empire. They did not fight for ideology. They fought for themselves.
And in doing so, they forced the world to see what the Patriots would not admit: that the revolution did not belong solely to the planter or the printer or the delegate behind a locked door in Philadelphia. It belonged, too, to the man who ran, who fought, who died for a freedom never meant for him.
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welcome back. great article.