Transcript Freedom is Worth Fighting For: Billy and James Freedom is worth fighting for. What choices did the Revolutionary War in Virginia create for.

Freedom is Worth Fighting For:
Billy and James
Freedom is worth fighting for.
What choices did the Revolutionary War in Virginia
create for enslaved African Americans?
Dunmore’s
Proclamation
Image courtesy of the
Library of Congress
John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, State Art
Collection, Library of Virginia.
From the Proclamation
• I do…determine to execute martial Law…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 I do hereby further 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 …
Standard: flag
Petition of
Mann Page on
Behalf of Billy
Image courtesy of the
Library of Virginia
From Billy’s Petition
(Excerpted and Reworded)
To the honorable the Speaker & Gentlemen of the House of
Delegates,
The Petition of Mann Page…humbly shows, that Billy, alias
Will alias William, a Mulatto Slave…was condemned to die for
Treason by the…Court of Prince William County; but upon
[hearing of the case]…Thomas Jefferson Esquire the then
Governor of Virginia, [issued] a Reprieve…for the…Slave 'till
the last Day of the present Month.
Your Petitioner [understands] that a Pardon for Treason can
only be granted by the Legislature, begs that he may be
heard before a Committee on Behalf of the said Slave.
Citation: Legislative Petitions, Prince William Co., n.d., Received June 7, 1781], Record Group 78, Library of Virginia,
Richmond, Virginia.
Reprieve: delay punishment
James's
Petition to
the General
Assembly
Image courtesy of the
Library of Virginia
From James’s Petition
(Excerpted and Reworded)
To the honorable the Speaker & gentlemen of the general Assembly,
The petition of James (a slave belonging to Will: Armistead of New Kent county)
humbly shows: That your petitioner [believing in the] right which all mankind have
to Freedom, notwithstanding his own state of bondage, [wanting] to serve this
Country…did, during the [Revolutionary War, with] the permission of his master,
[go to serve with] the Marquiss Lafayette:
[While] serving the Marquiss he often [at great danger to himself went to] the
British Camp…at different times your petitioner conveyed [letters] from the
Marquiss into the enemies lines, of the most secret & important kind; the
possession of which if discovered on him would have most certainly endangered
the life of your petitioner:
…[James followed commands] with cheerfulness & fidelity, [unlike many other
slaves.]
…your petitioner [attaches a letter from] the Marquiss Lafayette…
[James] humbly [asks] that he may be granted that Freedom, which he [believes]
he has [helped] to establish; & which he hopes always to prove himself worthy of:
[he also requests that] his present master…shall be [paid] for the loss of a
valuable workman…
Citation: Legislative Petition for James, Slave Belonging to William Armistead, November 30, 1786, Box 179, Folder 10,
Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Fidelity: faithfulness