Fight The Power Tour

In a 1772 letter to Lord Hillsborough Dunmore wrote, "At present, the freedom seekers are double the number of European people in this colony, which by natural increase, and the great addition of new imported ones every year is sufficient to alarm not only this colony but all the Colonies of America. . .in case of war. . . the people, with great reason, trembled at the facility that an enemy would find in procuring Such a body of men, attached by no tye to their Enslavers or to the Country, on the Contrary it is natural to Suppose their Condition must inspire them with an aversion to both, and therefore are ready to join the first that would encourage them to revenge themselves by which means a conquest of this Country would inevitably be effected in a very Short time."

You will time travel to November 14, 1775, to join a contingent of British soldiers under Dunmore’s command, supplemented by escaped freedom seekers, to thrash a Virginia militia unit at Kemp’s Landing, on the Elizabeth River south of Norfolk. Commanding your Ethiopian Regiment will be the British officer Thomas Byrd, the son of patriot William Byrd III, who had founded America's first African-Descent majority Baptist Church which preached equality on his Bluestone River Concentration Camp in 1758. Dunmore’s force killed several militiamen, captured both militia colonels, and put the rest of the Virginians to flight. One of the colonels, Joseph Hutchings, a former member of the House of Burgesses, was captured by two escaped freedom seekers from his own concentration camp and died. Hutchings' father had begun kidnapping Africans in 1725. John Ackiss, who was the son of a former member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in southern Princess Anne County. Ackiss was killed in the battle and became the first Virginian casualty of the America's First Mass Revolt for Freedom. Shortly thereafter, the city of Norfolk was burned and with it went Joseph’s house and belongings.

Flush with victory, the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, promised freedom to all the freedom seekers of revolutionaries who would take up arms and fight for “His Majesty’s crown and dignity.” At least 20,000 Virginians took the call of freedom into their own hands. Immediately, freedom seekers rushed to Norfolk to join “Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment.” Across the chest of each freedom seeking soldier appeared the words "Liberty to Slaves." Among the first to flee to Dunmore were eight of the twenty-seven freedom seekers who toiled at the stately Williamsburg dwelling of Peyton Randolph, Speaker of Virginia’s House of Burgesses and one of Virginia’s delegates to the Continental Congress. Aggy, Billy, Eve, Sam, Lucy, George, Henry, and Peter slipped away from Randolph’s house. Eluding the enslaver patrols walking Williamsburg’s streets, they reached the British forces not far from town. Three weeks after Dunmore issued his proclamation, Lund Washington, manager of his cousin George’s Mount Vernon estate, warned the general that among the freedom seekers “there is not a man of them but would leave us, if they could make their escape. . . . Liberty is sweet.” The freedom seekers from many of Virginia’s leading European descent revolutionary figures now became African descent revolutionary Virginians themselves. They soon formed the majority of Dunmore’s Loyalist troops. Madison later wrote that “It is imagined our Governor has been tampering with the Slaves & that he has it in contemplation to make great Use of them in Case of a civil war in this province. To say the truth, that is the only part in which this Colony is vulnerable; and if we should be subdued, we shall fall like Achilles by the hand of one who knows that secret.”

Lex is our supporting Living Historian, shown here defeating Confederate forces assaulting Fort Pocahontas in June 2021. He has also acted in numerous community theater productions, including a Mrs. Sears production of "On Fire With The Faith," written by William Sears. His interest in American history has led to his co-founding the African American Historical Alliance of South Carolina, volunteering at the African American Civil War Monument and Museum, being a memorial member of the Sons & Daughters of the United States Colored Troops and being an active living historian with the 23rd United States Colored Troops.

This tour will visit May 24th, 1864 to join Freedom Seeking United States Colored Troops, outnumbered 2 to 1 and facing certain enslavement if they should be defeated by Robert E. Lee's Nephew's son, Fitzhugh Lee, who understated his losses as 10 killed, 48 wounded, and 4 missing: 62 total. In fact, 25 bodies were left behind in the abatis. A correspondent stated: “The (Confederates’) total loss was one hundred and fifty; nineteen prisoners were taken.” In his “Report of Operation,” Lee also exaggerated Federal strength at 2,500 men in three regiments “strongly entrenched… a wide ditch across the entire front & a strong abatis being insurmountable obstacles.” The Richmond Examiner went further, “the enemy, supposedly negro troops and a large number of marines from the fleet. (The) ditch (was) 10 or 12 feet deep (and) 15-18 feet wide, an abatis made more impenetrable by intertwining wire. An officer (told us) it would have taken our men two hours to get inside their worked had there not been men inside. six gunboats.” Lt. Simonton stated: “The account in the Richmond Examiner was a gross exaggeration of the actual facts which amused us not a little at the time. No mention was made that Gen. Lee was defeated and driven back by Union forces consisting nearly all of colored troops.”