As the American Revolution broke out in New England in the spring of 1775, dramatic events unfolded in Virginia that proved every bit as decisive as the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill in uniting the colonies against Britain. A Perfect Frenzy chronicles these stunning and widely overlooked events for the first time. 

Virginia in 1775 was the largest, wealthiest, and most populous province in British North America, and led by a royal governor named Lord Dunmore who was determined to keep the colony loyal to the Crown. When patriots imperiled Williamsburg, the capital of his province, the Scottish earl freed and armed enslaved Africans—two of every five Virginians—to fight for Britain. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, Dunmore’s actions in the fall of 1775 “raised our countrymen into a perfect frenzy.” His emancipation of enslaved people prompted Virginia’s patriot leaders to urge the Continental Congress to split from Britain, breaking the deadlock among the colonies and leading to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Join us to hear the full story of how Virginia turned a regional rebellion into a continental conflict and learn more about the vastly different motivations of patriots in the North and South. Don’t miss author Andrew Lawler's illustrated presentation of A Perfect Frenzy.

Andrew Lawler is the author of the national bestseller The Secret Token, about the lost colony of Roanoke, and the award-winning Under Jerusalem. As a journalist he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles for, among many others, the The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and Smithsonian. He is a contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology magazines. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

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