Free book talk on Revolutionary War issues set for May 3

MIDDLESEX––Andrew Lawler’s novel, “A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution,” will forever change one’s understanding of the American Revolution, and sheds light on the origins of America’s present-day conflicts around race, gun control, immigration, and the divide between urban and rural communities.

The public is invited to join author Andrew Lawler on Sunday, May 3 for a free book talk and book signing as he traces momentous events that helped push Virginians towards independence. The event is set for 3-5 p.m. at St. Clare Walker Middle School, 6814 General Puller Highway, Locust Hill. It is sponsored by the Middlesex County “Virginia 250” Committee.

For information, call 758-8112.

Enslaved freed

As the American Revolution broke out in New England in the spring of 1775, dramatic events unfolded in Virginia that proved every bit as decisive as the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill in uniting the colonies against Britain. That June, following the British raid on the powder magazine in Williamsburg in April and increasing tensions with patriots, Virginia’s last royal governor Lord Dunmore fled the capital and built a stronghold in Norfolk. In November, Dunmore issued a proclamation promising freedom to enslaved people and indentured servants owned by patriots who joined the British war effort. Several hundred enslaved people joined Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment, which saw combat in late 1775 and into 1776. 

In May 1776, after the burning of Norfolk, Lord Dunmore’s fleet of about 82 ships ran up the Chesapeake Bay and set anchor in the waters of Milford Haven and Hills Bay off shore of Gwynn’s Island in what is now present day Mathews County. There the Battle of Cricket Hill took place.