should be rejected altogether.[18] Accordingly, the general orders from
Washington, dated November 12, 1775, declared that neither Negroes, boys
unable to bear arms, nor old men unfit to endure fatigues of the campaign
should be enlisted.

The men who had taken this position had acted blindly. They had failed to
consider the various complications which might arise as a result of the
refusal to admit Negroes to the army. What would the Negroes think when
they saw their offering thrown away from the altar of their country? Were
the Revolutionary fathers so stupid as to think that the British would
adopt the same policy? They could not have believed that the situation
could be so easily cleared. Before the Revolution was well on its way
the delegates from Georgia to the Continental Congress had already
experienced certain fears as to the safety of Georgia and South Carolina.
They believed that if one thousand regular troops should land in Georgia
under a commander with adequate supplies and he should proclaim freedom
to all loyal Negroes, twenty thousand of them would join the British in a
fortnight. It was to them a matter of much concern that the Negroes of
these provinces had such a wonderful art of communicating intelligence
among themselves as to convey information several hundred miles in a week
or in a fortnight.[19] The colonists, too, could not ignore the bold
attempt of Lord Dunmore, the dethroned governor of Virginia, who issued
a proclamation of freedom to all slaves who would fight for the king,
endeavored to raise a black regiment among them, and actually used a
number of Negroes in the battle at Kemp's Landing, where they behaved like
well-seasoned soldiers, pursuing and capturing one of the attacking
companies.[20] Referring thereafter to Lord Dunmore as an arch-traitor who
should be instantly crushed, George Washington said: "But that which
renders the measure indispensably necessary is the Negroes, if he gets
formidable numbers of them, will be tempted to join" him.