Royal Ethiopian Regiment | |
---|---|
Active | 1775–1776 |
Country | British America |
Allegiance | Great Britain |
Branch | infantry, dragoons (mounted infantry), labor duty |
Type | British provincial unit |
Role | guerrilla warfare, maneuver warfare |
Size | company (300) |
Nickname(s) | Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, Royal Ethiopian Regiment |
Motto(s) | Liberty to Slaves |
Engagements | American Revolutionary War
|
Commanders | |
Ceremonial chief | King George III |
Notable commanders | Governor Lord Dunmore Captain Samuel Leslie Captain Charles Fordyce |
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (June 2008) |
The Royal Ethiopian Regiment, also known as Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, was a British military unit of formerly enslaved Black enlisted men. It was organized a few months after the April 1775 outbreak of the American Revolution by the Earl of Dunmore, last Royal Governor of Virginia. Dunmore had issued a proclamation in November promising freedom to enslaved Blacks held by Patriots in Virginia, who joined the British cause to suppress the insurrection. Hundreds of enslaved men left their enslavers to join the new regiment led by British officers and sergeants. The regiment's uniforms were inscribed with the "incendiary words 'Liberty to Slaves'". Enlisted men were not only emancipated but also paid one pound, one guinea for joining.[1] The regiment was disbanded in 1776, though many of its soldiers probably went on to serve in other Black Loyalist units.