Virginia’s royal governor, Lord Dunmore, had created a base to oppose the rebels near the port of Norfolk in the summer of 1775. Encouraged by the large numbers of enslaved people who sought sanctuary behind British lines, he published the British empire’s first emancipation proclamation in November, granting liberty to any person in bondage, owned by Patriots, who would take up arms for King George III. These recruits—Harry Washington among them—formed the empire’s first Black regiment. Together with Dunmore, they launched what would amount to the biggest slave insurrection in the nation’s history until the Civil War. Their uniforms bore the motto “Liberty for Slaves”—a tart retort to the “Liberty or Death” slogan favored by Patriots.