Not So Fast: Virginia’s Gradual Embrace of Independence

Mike Cecere author photoRelevant History welcomes Mike Cecere, who was raised in Maine but moved to Virginia in 1990, where he discovered a passion for American History. Mr. Cecere teaches U.S. History courses for Fairfax County Public Schools and Northern Virginia Community College. He was recognized by the Virginia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution as their 2005 Outstanding Teacher of the Year and is an avid Revolutionary War reenactor who lectures throughout the country on the American Revolution. Mr. Cecere is the author of eleven books on the American Revolution. His books focus primarily on the role that Virginians played in the Revolution. For more information, email him at umfspock87 [at] cs [dot] com.

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The famous, “shot heard around the world,” fired on Lexington Green on 19 April 1775 is universally acknowledged as the starting point of the Revolutionary War and ultimately, American independence. The argument goes that an unstoppable force was unleashed when the Massachusetts militia challenged a British raid to seize gunpowder and arms in Concord. The bloodshed of Lexington and Concord propelled Britain and her American colonies into a full-blown war, a war that fifteen months later resulted in America’s Declaration of Independence.

More to the Story
What is overlooked by this view of the origins of the Revolutionary War is that for the colonies outside of New England, many months passed before blood was shed within their borders. It was far from a foregone conclusion after Lexington and Concord that the colonies outside of New England would participate in a war against Great Britain, much less declare independence from the mother county. The mid-Atlantic and southern colonies moved towards conflict with the mother country at their own pace, largely separated from the events unfolding in New England.

Hand on the Trigger
Williamsburg powder magazineJust two days after the bloodshed of Lexington and Concord, Virginia experienced its own crisis when its royal governor, Lord Dunmore, ordered a supply of gunpowder removed from the powder magazine in the center of Williamsburg to a British warship in the James River. A large, angry crowd gathered in Williamsburg and hundreds of militia from the surrounding countryside prepared to march on the capital to demand the powder’s return. Three weeks earlier, Patrick Henry, Virginia most famous orator and politician, had declared, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” in an effort to strengthen Virginia’s militia. He had predicted war with Britain, and in late April and early May of 1775 it looked to many Virginians that Henry’s prediction had come true. More moderate voices, led by Peyton Randolph, the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, managed to defuse the crisis and disburse the militia, but tensions remained.

While Virginia’s delegates to the Second Continental Congress supported a proposal in June to form a continental army and appoint a fellow Virginian, George Washington, to command it, the Virginia House of Burgesses pleaded with Governor Dunmore, who had fled to a British warship in early June, to return to the capital so the business of governing could resume. Weeks of stalemate passed in Virginia while in Massachusetts, the bloody battle of Bunker Hill occurred, and the British army in Boston was besieged by New England militia.

By the end of the summer, hundreds of militia had gathered in Williamsburg, and Virginia’s leaders had taken steps to significantly strengthen the colony’s military forces (with militia battalions and two regiments of full time “regular” troops), but blood had yet to be shed in the Old Dominion.

The Gloves Come Off
This finally changed six months after the battle of Lexington and Concord when a small squadron of ships under Captain Matthew Squire of the H.M.S. Otter sailed into the Hampton River in late October to burn Hampton. This was a retaliatory raid against the town, punishment for the destruction of a British tender that had washed ashore in a storm in September near Hampton and been destroyed by the townspeople. Captain Squire’s ships struggled to reach Hampton up the river channel, which was obstructed by the Virginians with sunken vessels. Heavy small-arms fire from the Virginians onshore drew a response from the British, and blood was shed on both sides. The British received the worst of it and reluctantly withdrew, sparing Hampton of destruction.

Lord DunmoreThree weeks later in November, Lord Dunmore used a successful skirmish against the Princess Anne militia as a platform to raise the King’s standard and call on all loyal Virginians to rally to his, and the King’s, cause. Dunmore also offered freedom to any slave or indentured servant of a rebel who took up arms for him. Hundreds stepped forward to do so, and for a time it looked as if the royal governor just might re-establish royal authority in Virginia.

Alas, Dunmore’s decisive defeat at the Battle of Great Bridge in early December was a turning point in his efforts to maintain control of southern Virginia. Forced to abandon Norfolk and seek shelter aboard ships in the Elizabeth River, Dunmore and his supporters spent the first six months of 1776 little more than refugees in Norfolk harbor.

It’s Gone Too Far
By the spring of 1776, Virginia’s movement towards independence from Great Britain appeared unstoppable, and calls echoed throughout the colony to “Cast off the British Yoke.” The Fifth Virginia Convention voted unanimously to do so on 15 May 1776, and instructions were sent to Virginia’s delegates in the Continental Congress to offer a resolution on independence on behalf of all the colonies. While debate on this proposal occurred in Philadelphia, the Fifth Virginia Convention drafted a new state constitution and a Declaration of Rights, adopting both before independence was formally voted on in Congress.

The path to American independence was far more complicated than is widely known. Virginia’s journey is a fascinating tale. The story of Virginia’s movement to independence is the focus of my new book, Cast Off the British Yoke: The Old Dominion and American Independence, 1763-1776. The book chronicles the key events that led to Virginia’s entry into the Revolutionary War in October 1775 and its eventual support for independence from Great Britain in the spring of 1776.

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Cast Off the British Yoke book coverA big thanks to Mike Cecere.

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Comments

Not So Fast: Virginia’s Gradual Embrace of Independence — 16 Comments

  1. Thanks for your post, Mike. You know, Lord Dunmore wasn’t the only royal governor who lived on a boat to save his hide. The rebels ran North Carolina’s final royal governor, Josiah Martin, out of town, and he, too, took up living offshore.

    • That just reinforces my notion that the experience of the 13 colonies leading up to independence was much more unique than we are taught in school. Let’s hope others come forward to tell the unique stories of some of the other colonies.

      • Speaking of unique experiences, I hope you teach your 11th-graders that Massachusetts wasn’t the only colony to have a tea party. Here in North Carolina, we had at least two tea parties. 😉

  2. Having been to Williamsburg and Jamestown as an adult now, it would be interesting to go back and see how my 4th and 5th and 11th grade American history classes can shed light on how things really happened and why.

    • I can’t speak for the elementary grades, but as an 11th grade American History teacher here in Virginia, I know that the state doesn’t expect students to learn many of the crucial details about the American Revolution that are unique to Virginia. I confess that students do learn these details in my class (which makes me a bit of a rebel) but they come at the cost of details on things like Industrialization and the Guilded Age. I’d take that trade anyday.

      • Shave some details off the Civil War while you’re at it. That period always seems to get more that its share of attention.

        • But Madame,
          I teach in Virginia and am surrounded by such fantastic Civil War sites. Heck, my school is named Robert E. Lee. I couldn’t possibly short change The War of Northern Aggression :) Stories must be told. I wish Virginia would adopt New Jersey’s approach and let us teach American History in two years. Then we could really teach the interesting stuff.

        • Okay, it’s obvious what the history curriculum will be at any school named “Robert E. Lee.” 😀

          And I agree with you about the New Jersey schools’ approach to history.

    • Thanks for stopping by, Diane. Most history classes in American public schools focus on dates and battles and omit the fun details. They gloss over the real “how” and “why” of the American Revolution in favor of the message that the Continentals won the war and the British lost. My sons and I were active Revolutionary War reenactors while they were in elementary through high school. They brought home discouraging stories from history class, such as teachers who didn’t know the difference between “Scottish” and “British,” and teachers who covered the American Revolution in two days so they could move on to other points on the curriculum. It’s no wonder so many American citizens are convinced that Paul Revere completed his ride, and the war was fought mainly in the northern colonies. I didn’t truly learn about the American Revolution until I studied it on my own.

  3. Was there a reservoir of upcountry Tories that Dunmore hoped to make contact, similar to the Moore’s Creek Scots in North Carolina? And, since the images of Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, and the Overmountain Men dominate our view of war along the Appalachian front, have we neglected recognition of Crown supporters in the region as an important factor? – Tate Jones

    • That’s a very interesting question. After his successful expedition against the Shawnee in 1774 I suspect Dunmore felt he did have support among the Virginia frontiersmen. He also sent a supporter named John Connolly to the west in an effort to generate support from some of the Indians. The grand scheme was to descend upon northern Virginia in 1776. The plot went nowhere though as Connolly was seized in the fall of 1775 in PA (I think) and the plot revealed. As for native Virginian support, it seems that Norfolk may have been Dunmore’s strongest source of support, but that evaporated after the Battle of Great Bridge in Dec. 1775.

    • Welcome back, Tate.

      have we neglected recog­ni­tion of Crown sup­port­ers in the region as an impor­tant fac­tor?

      Yes, indeed, and recognizing Crown supporters would balance the picture, make it three-dimensional. I’d like to see more about David Fanning and Thomas Brown. They weren’t nice guys, but they did a lot of scouting, in addition to being loyalist militia leaders.

  4. The memorization of dates wad primarily why most of us hated history class I think. Suzanne, when I read your book “The Blacksmith’s Daughter” and doubled checked genealogy facts about my ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War and had settled in New Bordeaux SC, my family history came alive. You described the human interactions leading up to a famous battle where it turned out my ancestor served as an untrained militia and was wounded but not killed. Turns out the mastermind behind that battle carefully used the untrained militia and that’s probably the only reason my ancestor survived the battle and was able to father children. His strategy at the Battle of Cowpens had been taught and used by military strategists since then. And I’m alive because of it.

    • Diane, what an amazing story! What was your ancestor’s name?

      The Battle of Cowpens figured in my third book, Camp Follower, not The Blacksmith’s Daughter (book two, the Battle of Camden). So your ancestor fought beneath the venerable Daniel Morgan, who was smart enough to figure out how to use the militia to his greatest advantage while drawing Banastre Tarleton’s army into a double envelopment. Double envelopment is rare. Hannibal defeated the Romans with it in the Battle of Cannae. The Battle of Cowpens is supposedly the only example of double envelopment in North America.

  5. Thanks,

    I didn’t know about this. History is more complicated and more intriguing than the sanitized version taught in schools.

    • Right-o, Warren. I’m sure I didn’t learn real history in high school.