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Thomas Jefferson was in Philadelphia at the Continental Congress when he learned that Virginia’s royal governor, Lord Dunmore, had fled Williamsburg in mid-1775 and taken his troops to Norfolk, a city of about 6,250, the largest in the colony. A prosperous port with elegant homes and exquisite gardens, Norfolk was home to many of the king’s most loyal subjects, shipbuilders and sailmakers and merchants who benefited from London’s laws that gave monopolies to traders. The waters teemed with tall-masted ships along the Elizabeth River; warehouses by the waterfront held much of the American wealth ready for shipment to London and beyond.
Dunmore felt secure as he settled into the great shipyard, which included one of the largest buildings in the colonies, a five-story warehouse with a massive iron-and-brass crane. Dunmore seized ships and encouraged Loyalists to join his armada. Then — angry at attacks on him by a Norfolk newspaper — he sent his army into town to seize the printing press, which he brought to one of his ships to print a newspaper that carried his version of events.
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As militias marched to Norfolk, one of Jefferson’s closest friends, John Page, wrote to him in Philadelphia urging assistance. Jefferson, who just weeks earlier had written that he was “looking with fondness towards a reconciliation with Great Britain,” now responded to his friend with a Latin phrase in capital letters: “DELANDA EST NORFOLK.”
It was a reference to Cato’s famous words that Carthage must be destroyed to save the Roman Empire. The translation of Jefferson’s words: “Norfolk must be destroyed.”
Responded Page: “We must be prepared to destroy it.”
Days later, Dunmore took a step that some historians believe turned the course of American history.
An image of Thomas Jefferson, left, is reflected in glass from the Battle of Great Bridge display at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown in Yorktown, Virginia, on Aug. 6. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Hunkered aboard the ship William and fearing just the kind of destruction that Jefferson said was necessary, Dunmore issued what some later called the first emancipation proclamation, promising freedom to enslaved Black people who met certain conditions. “I do hereby farther declare that all indented servants, Negroes, or others (appertaining to rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining his Majesty’s troops, as soon as may be.” He had copies printed on the pilfered press and distributed them around Virginia.
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