This report in the August 31, 1776, issue of Dixon & Hunter’s Virginia Gazette contains a list of formerly enslaved Black people on board the fleet of John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore. The list includes fifteen people who had participated in the Great Willoughby Slave Escape in April of 1776.
This excerpt from the June 13, 1766, issue of Purdie & Dixon’s Virginia Gazette describes the celebrations in Great Bridge after the repeal of the Stamp Act. The report shows Virginians’ continued loyalty to Britain and their hope that the repeal has resolved the conflict between the colonies and Great Britain.
This issue of Purdie & Dixon’s Virginia Gazette, published on May 2, 1766, reports that Parliament has repealed the Stamp Act after intense protest in Virginia and other colonies.
This excerpt from the September 15, 1775, issue of Purdie’s Virginia Gazette, shares news surrounding the brewing conflict between Patriots and British officers leading up to the Battle of Hampton. This issue includes a letter from British captain George Montague to Captain Matthew Squire recommending that Squire protect Joseph Harris, a formerly enslaved pilot, from the people of Hampton seeking to reenslave him. Harris rowed himself and Squire to safety after the British tender Liberty ran aground near Hampton. Underneath this letter, the newspaper prints Squire’s letter threatening the editor of the Norfolk Gazette in retaliation for unfavorable coverage. This issue of the Virginia Gazette also prints Squire’s letter to the town of Hampton demanding the return of the Liberty‘s supplies stolen by colonists. Patriots refused to return the materials until the British returned the enslaved people who found protection in their ranks.
In this letter to the editor of Pinkney’s Virginia Gazette published on December 20, 1775, a contributor gives an account of the Patriots’ victory in the Battle of Great Bridge, the first major battle of the American Revolution in Virginia. The writer mentions one sentinel who kept his position and slowed the British advance, later identified as a free Black soldier named William “Billy” Flora.
This excerpt from the March 8, 1776, issue of Purdie’s Virginia Gazette describes the spread of disease on the fleet of royal governor John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore, including among members of the Ethiopian Regiment. Illness was a recurring problem for Dunmore’s forces in the spring and summer of 1776.
This January 6, 1776, issue of the Virginia Gazette (Pinkney) recounts the destruction of Norfolk by the fleet of royal governor John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore, on New Year’s Day, 1776. This account presents the Patriot narrative of the destruction of Norfolk, which blamed the British bombardment. A later investigation would confirm that the majority of the destruction was caused by the Patriot forces.
The February 10, 1775, issue of Purdie’s Virginia Gazette published the Fincastle Resolutions, which the Fincastle County Committee wrote as an address to Virginia’s delegates to the First Continental Congress. The congress had met the previous autumn while several members of the county committee were fighting in Dunmore’s War. The Fincastle Resolutions express support for the Continental Congress’s Association and name a committee to enforce a boycott of British trade. Unlike other resolves passed by counties across Virginia in 1774, the Fincastle Resolutions also focus on conflicts with Native tribes.
A group of militia officers returning from Dunmore’s War published the Fort Gower Resolves in the December 22, 1774, issue of the Virginia Gazette. The Fort Gower Resolves declare loyalty to King George III while asserting the officers’ preparedness to defend their rights, marking the first time colonists expressed their willingness to take up arms against Britain.
The February 4, 1775, issue of Dixon and Hunter’s Virginia Gazette included this message attributed to a Mingo leader named Tah-Gah-Jute, also known as James Logan. Logan’s family was killed by Virginia settlers as part of the Yellow Creek Massacre in the spring of 1774, leading to Dunmore’s War. Logan refused to attend the treaty negotiations after the war and instead wrote this speech to be delivered at the negotiations. The text became known as “Logan’s Lament” and was published widely, including in Thomas Jefferson’s 1787 book Notes on the State of Virginia.
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