Prelude To Revolution
In November 1775 John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation offering freedom to all slaves and indentured servants who would leave rebel masters and join the British. The proclamation led almost 100,000 slaves to escape and join the British — Titus among them. Planters considered this a "diabolical scheme"; it contributed to their support for the Patriot cause (Henretta et al. 2006). Having learned to sell his own goods and memorized a map of the region, Titus escaped from Corlies and traveled down the coast to Virginia. There he passed as a freedman and did odd jobs. Corlies posted a reward for Titus's capture and return, describing him as "about 21 years of age, not very black, near six feet high".
Read more about this topic: Colonel Tye
Famous quotes containing the words prelude to, prelude and/or revolution:
“I got a little secretarial job after college, but I thought of it as a prelude. Education, work, whatever you did before marriage, was only a prelude to your real life, which was marriage.”
—Bonnie Carr (c. early 1930s)
“Were all friends here is a prelude to fraud. I am sincere is a prelude to lying.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Rugged, mountainous, volcanic, he was himself more a French revolution than any of his volumes.”
—Walt Whitman (18191892)