British emancipation offers drove white colonists, including slaveholders, toward independence

Evidence

Dunmore’s proclamation turned ever more white Virginians against the governor and made Norfolk a prime target for patriot troops. “Rather than the Town should be garrisoned by our Enemies,” Virginia legislator and future governor John Page wrote about Norfolk on November 11, “we must be prepared to destroy it.” Leaders of the Virginia and North Carolina regiments marching on the city expressed similar views. Writing from his post commanding the patriot army besieging Boston, Washington—some of whose own enslaved workers bolted in response to Dunmore’s proclamation—damned the royal governor as “diabolical” and declared, “Nothing less than depriving him of life or liberty will secure peace in Virginia.” To Congress, Washington wrote about Dunmore in December, “The fate of America a good deal depends, on his being obliged to evacuate Norfolk this Winter.” — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 19

Categorization

• XREF: Precisely the competing-values material this reader wants: white colonists’ liberty claims were partly defensive reactions to British promises of Black freedom — connects to the later drafting debate and to the ‘Grafting’ article’s insight that liberty claims carry unacknowledged costs on others. — connects to: Protecting slavery was a primary motive driving some colonists to declare independence — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 102; British arming of slaves and Indians drove southerners to embrace independence — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 123; Rumors of British emancipation bills inflamed white colonists’ fear for slave property — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 99

Broader Connections

• British arming of slaves and Indians drove southerners to embrace independence #exemplifies (0.95) — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 123
• Rumors of British emancipation bills inflamed white colonists’ fear for slave property #expands (0.90) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 99
• Protecting slavery was a primary motive driving some colonists to declare independence #corroborates (0.85) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 102