Ethiopian Regiment

Royal Ethiopian Regiment
Active	1775–1776
Country	British America
Allegiance	Great Britain
Branch	infantry, dragoons (mounted infantry), labor duty
Type	British provincial unit
Role	guerrilla warfare, maneuver warfare
Size	company (300)
Nickname(s)	Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, Royal Ethiopian Regiment
Motto(s)	Liberty to Slaves
Engagements	American Revolutionary War Battle of Kemp's Landing (1775) Battle of Great Bridge (1775) Raids in Virginia Colony (1775–1776)
Commanders
Ceremonial chief	King George III
Notable commanders	Governor Lord Dunmore Captain Samuel Leslie Captain Charles Fordyce

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The Royal Ethiopian Regiment, also known as Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, was a British military unit of formerly enslaved Black enlisted men. It was organized a few months after the April 1775 outbreak of the American Revolution by the Earl of Dunmore, last Royal Governor of Virginia. Dunmore had issued a proclamation in November promising freedom to enslaved Blacks held by Patriots in Virginia, who joined the British cause to suppress the insurrection. Hundreds of enslaved men left their enslavers to join the new regiment led by British officers and sergeants. The regiment's uniforms were inscribed with the "incendiary words 'Liberty to Slaves'". Enlisted men were not only emancipated but also paid one pound, one guinea for joining.^[1] The regiment was disbanded in 1776, though many of its soldiers probably went on to serve in other Black Loyalist units.