"Dated November 7, it declared "all indented Servants, Negroes, or others (appertaining to Rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining his MAJESTY'S Troops, as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this Colony to a proper Sense of their Duty, to his MAJESTY'S Crown and Dignity"
The American Side:
The Continental Army wanted long-term soldiers who served wherever needed, an unappealing prospect for Virginians at a time of heightened slave unrest and the threat of wholesale desertion of their black property to the British. "The lottery-based draft law enacted in May 1777 greatly increased the number of blacks in the Virginia Line. Free blacks were the first to be called up, as Virginia tightened the enforcement of the draft. "It was thought that they could best be spared," Governor Thomas Nelson informed George Washington.
General Washington himself had opened the door for African-Americans in his general orders of January 12, 1777, in which he instructed recruiters to "enlist none but Freemen," the implication being that the recruit could be black just as long as he was free."
hmmmm.....
Battle of Bunker Hill-"The battle's unlikely hero was apparently a figure named Salem Poor. A 27-year-old freed slave, Poor joined the Massachusetts militia in time to face down the British on top of Bunker Hill and fatally wounded a British colonel during the battle. Afterwards, more than a dozen Colonial officers cited him for extraordinary bravery. "A Negro Man Called Salem Poor ... behaved like an Experienced Officer, as Well as an Excellent Soldier," they wrote. Poor was the only soldier at the battle to be singled out for such praise, but the specifics of his exploits are frustratingly out of reach - "to Set forth Particulars of his Conduct," the officers wrote with no regard for history, "would be Tedious." nuf said First death in American Revolution "Some historians consider the escaped slave, Crispus Attucks, the first casualty of the American Revolution. He was killed in the "Boston Massacre," March 5, 1770. A total of five men were killed at that "event." Four died at the site, one died several days later." wikianswers, militarydiscovery.com,americanrevolution.org
Sorry about what?
Dunmore’s proclamation of 1775 is the reason for the line in the Declaration of Independence which says “He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us...”