New Light on a Dark Chapter in the American Revolution

Book Review

Lawler, Andrew. A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution. First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025.

Few books about the American Revolution tell the story from the perspectives of the British, Loyalist Americans, and enslaved Blacks. Veteran journalist and author thoughtfully adds to the incomplete historical record with his first book on the American Revolutionary Era. Lawler crafts a compelling narrative of the early moments of the American War for Independence in Virginia and its last Royal Governor, John Murray, 4^th Earl of Dunmore. Lord Dunmore is best known for leading a pre-Revolutionary military expedition, known as Lord Dunmore’s War, to defeat the Shawnee Nation, thereby gaining significant territory for land-hungry Virginians. The Scotsman is less recognized for his efforts to prevent rebellion in Virginia during the first two years of the Revolutionary War.

Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Lawler centers his story on Dunmore’s effort to hold the bustling port city of Norfolk and wrest the Southeastern counties from Rebel control. Scottish merchants and loyalist-leaning farmers dominated the region, supplying Lord Dunmore with resources and militia fighters. To strengthen his forces and weaken the Patriot economy, Dunmore issued a proclamation freeing enslaved people who would cross into the British lines and swear allegiance to the Crown. To better illustrate the plight of the enslaved Blacks, Lawler uses the phrase “forced labor camps” to describe what many call plantations. Readers find plenty of opportunities to reflect on his more vivid and realistic descriptions of the conditions under which enslaved Africans labored. To support the British war effort, able-bodied and militarily inclined Black men formed a regiment that Lord Dunmore honored with the title “Ethiopian Regiment.” By all accounts, this all-black but white officer-led unit acquitted itself well in combat in multiple battles.

The core of Lawler’s narrative is the battle for and the ultimate destruction of Norfolk, Virginia’s largest and most commercial city. When the British Navy destroyed several warehouses concealing Patriot sharpshooters, a small blaze broke out. Later, the Patriot forces set fire to the rest of the town. Subsequently, the Patriot leaders ordered a complete evacuation of the city and nearby counties, displacing up to twenty thousand people. Lawler offers four key arguments about the devastation of the Norfolk area that arouse further debate.

First, he contends that the Patriot militias committed the greatest war crime of the American Rebellion by refusing to extinguish the conflagration started by the British and then burning down the entire city. Revolutionary Era historians might cringe at the use of a twentieth-century term, and informed readers could argue that the British prisoner-of-war hulks caused far more loss of life. While Norfolk’s destruction was horrific, it would have been interesting to assess whether denying the British access to a strategic warm-water port influenced the outcome of the war. Control over New York and Newport contributed significantly to the British efforts, but sandbars, winter freezes, and the lack of access to food and supplies limited their effectiveness. The author notes that Virginia might have been a more suitable location for the British to restore Crown control.

Second, the former Norfolk native believes that Norfolk’s destruction by the Patriots occurred partly because the planter class, including Thomas Jefferson, harbored deep hostility towards the Scottish merchants. Many quotes from prominent Virginia politicians support this claim. One point that could have been explored more is Robert Howe’s role as the Patriot commander. This North Carolina Continental Army general was not necessarily driven by intra-Virginia animus. 

Third, Lawler argues that participants and, later, historians concealed the fact that the Rebels burned Norfolk, blaming all the destruction on the British. The Patriot press won the propaganda battle, spreading the idea across Revolutionary America that Norfolk was destroyed by British treachery, just like Charlestown and Falmouth in Massachusetts. Lawler cites several historians from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who echo the patriot propaganda, showing that historians also misrepresent the real cause of Norfolk’s devastation. However, later historians such as Rick Atkinson’s book, The British Are Coming, and the most recent biographers of Robert Howe, Charles E. Bennett and Donald R. Lennon in A Quest for Glory, attribute the conflagration to the Patriot forces. In any event, Lawler provides a well-documented account regardless of your views on whether there was any military necessity to destroy the port.

Fourth, Lawler asserts that the Rebels’ order to evacuate the Norfolk area was one of the most significant non-Native American forced relocations in American history. Whether readers come up with counterexamples or not, this area-wide evacuation was unprecedented in the Revolutionary Era. In other regions, differing loyalties divided societies, with individuals migrating based on family preferences, community pressure, or in response to shifting lines of control between the Rebel and Loyalist forces. Lawler’s work raises interesting questions about the efficacy of the Patriot evacuation orders for Southeast Virginia and their long-term effects.

One of the book’s main strengths is its inclusion of the voices of enslaved people. Through detailed research, the author shares the experiences of African Americans who sided with the British and joined Lord Dunmore’s forces as soldiers, workers, and residents. Readers will gain insight into the hardships faced by these newly freed individuals and the struggles they endured. Their extraordinary, often tragic stories make Lawler’s account essential for understanding the cruelty of slavery and how far people will go to find freedom. Lawler generally depicts Lord Dunmore in a positive light, citing his commitment to protecting his Ethiopian regiment and the lives of the other Black refugees. However, he notes that British authorities did not always treat the formerly enslaved people, such as returning to bondage individuals who escaped from loyalist owners. Conversely, British officers in New York City refused to surrender formerly enslaved Blacks at the war’s end, which angered Virginia planters, including George Washington.

Throughout the book, Lawler demonstrates an incisive understanding of Lord Dunmore, providing a more well-rounded view of his character, accomplishments, and highlighting several of the Earl’s legacies. The author presents a compelling case that Lord Dunmore’s proclamation, which freed the enslaved population of Virginia to support the rebels, had a lasting impact, despite the British Earl’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to regain control of the colony of Virginia. He contends that Dunmore influenced Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and Frederick Douglass’s efforts to end slavery. He also quotes a historian who claims that Lord Dunmore should be considered an American founder, as the Scotsman issued the first emancipation proclamation in America. While this may be a stretch, readers will appreciate Lawler’s effort to deepen their understanding of Lord Dunmore, his Loyalist allies, and the lives of former slaves who risked everything to join the Earl’s fight against the Rebels.