on November 26, would face trial on December 9, and the case would finally be decided on June 22, 1772. Somerset's defense exposed the fact that the laws of England do not affirm the right to possess slaves as property. At the end of the case, Lord Mansfield, the overseeing judge, ordered Somerset be set free. This decision immediately led to a massive rise in anti-slavery activism in Britain, and was a catalyst to the end of slave practices in Britain and among the British colonists. This in-turn provoked some slaveholders among the colonists, and was a contributor to the increasing tensions between these colonists and the British. The fear of losing the ability to own slaves was a minor motivator behind the revolt for the colonists since the Somerset decision threatened the slave practices in the colonies because they were bound by British law. The Somerset decision is also a major precursor to Dunmore's proclamation. Dunmore offered freedom to African American slaves in exchange for service in the British army during the revolution as the Somerset decision had begun to normalize the freedom of African slaves in Britain. Dunmore's Proclamation Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, was determined to maintain British rule in the colonies and promised to free those enslaved men of rebel owners who fought for him. On November 7, 1775, he issued Dunmore's Proclamation: "I do hereby further declare all indented servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to Rebels,) free, that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining His Majesty's Troops." By December 1775 the British army had 300 enslaved men wearing a military uniform. Sewn-on the breast of the uniform was the inscription "Liberty to Slaves". These enslaved men were designated as "Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment." Patriot military response to Dunmore's Proclamation Dunmore's proclamation angered the colonists, as they turned many African American slaves against them, serving as another contributor to the spark of the revolution. The opposition to the proclamation is directly referenced in the United States Declaration of Independence. The support of African American slaves would become an essential element to the Revolutionary Army and the British Army, and it would become a competition between both sides to enlist as many African American Slaves as possible. Dunmore's Black soldiers aroused fear among some Patriots. The Ethiopian unit was used most frequently in the South, where the African population was oppressed to