A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution

As the American Revolution broke out in New England in the spring of 1775, dramatic events unfolded far to the south that proved every bit as decisive as the battles of Lexington and Concord in uniting the colonies against Britain. Virginia, the largest, wealthiest, and most populous province in British North America, was governed by Lord Dunmore, a pugnacious Scottish earl. Outgunned and outmanned, he allied with the colony’s enslaved Africans, who made up two of every five Virginians and were eager to gain their freedom. Dunmore emancipated those who would fight for King George III and sent them into battle against their patriot owners as part of the first corps of Black soldiers in American history. The crisis that gripped Virginia in 1775 and 1776 has long been relegated to the background by historians, in part because it is the story of two liberty-seeking groups of Americans fighting against one another. This book shows how the upheaval in Virginia shaped the course of the Revolution–and sheds light on the issues or race, gun control, immigration, and the split between city and country that continue to divide the nation.