institutionalize slavery. A number of cases were presented to the English courts for the emancipation of slaves residing in England, and numerous American runaways hoped to reach England where they expected to gain freedom. American slaves began to believe that King George III was for them and against their masters as tensions increased before the American Revolution. Colonial slaveholders feared a British-inspired slave rebellion, and Lord Dunmore wrote to Lord Dartmouth in early 1775 of his intention to take advantage of the situation. Proclamations Dunmore's Proclamation In November 1775, Lord Dunmore issued a controversial proclamation. As Virginia's royal governor, he called on all able-bodied men to assist him in the defense of the colony, including slaves belonging to the Patriots. He promised such slave recruits freedom in exchange for service in the British Army. Within a month, about 800 former slaves had fled to Norfolk, Virginia to enlist. Outraged Virginia slave owners decreed that runaway slaves would be executed, and they also counteracted the promises of Lord Dunmore by claiming that slaves who escaped to Lord Dunmore would be sold to sugar plantations in the Caribbean. But many slaves were willing to risk their lives for a chance at freedom. Lord Dunmore's Proclamation was the first mass emancipation of slaves in America. The 1776 Declaration of Independence refers obliquely to the Proclamation by citing it as one of its grievances, that King George III had "excited domestic Insurrections among us". An earlier version of the Declaration was more explicit, stating the following of King George III, but these controversial details were dropped during the final development of the document in Congress. After the war began, a number of British generals issued proclamations calling for Loyalists to free their slaves so that they could join the undermanned British army and bolster its numbers. Among those issuing proclamations were Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, and Sir Henry Clinton. Jamaica's Governor John Dalling drafted a proposal in 1779 for the enlistment of a regiment of mulattoes and another regiment of free Negroes. Philipsburg Proclamation With the arrival of 30,000 Hessian mercenary troops, the British did not have as much need of former slaves. Sir William Howe banned the formation of new Black regiments and disbanded his own. But freeing slaves of rebels still held value as economic warfare against the American so-called Patriots. In 1779, Sir Henry Clinton issued the Philipsburg Proclamation, expanding