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[[File:Proclamation.jpg|left| thumbnail|Lord Dunmore's Proclamation (1775)]]

It is believed that some 6,500 enslaved Africans decided that it was in their best interest to fight on behalf of the British. Dunmore’s proclamation had reverberations throughout the colonies. It made freedom almost immediately accessible to enslaved Africans that had resisted in many ways prior to the Revolutionary War, but now found the road somewhat easier as a result of the new British policy. Many of those that fought directly undermined the slave economies of the south by leaving and joining the Redcoats. Others decided it was expedient to choose neither side. Some estimated that the Revolutionary War led to over 30,000 runaways in Virginia alone. Overall, about 100,000 enslaved Africans emancipated themselves during this period. <ref> Robinson, ''Black Movements in America'', 23-24; Gerald Horne, ''Negro Comrades of the Crown: African Americans and the British Empire Fight the U.S. before Emancipation'' (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 17; Alan Gilbert, ''Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 121-28. </ref>

===The Declaration of Independence===