According to James Walker, in 1775, when Britain and thirteen of her North American colonies went to war, 'attention in some British quarters turned towards the half-million slaves in American hands who could be recruited as invaluable allies within the enemy camp'. While there were some concerns about inciting rebellion among the enslaved in the thirteen 'rebel' colonies, when Lord Dunmore, the governor of Virginia, declared martial law, he also called for support from 'all indentured servants, negroes, or others' to join the imperial forces in order to restore order. Walker says that within a week of the publication of Dunmore's Proclamation, 'over 300 black men joined the Governor's "Ethiopian Regiment", and when the governor met the rebels at Great Bridge on 9 December 1775, 'one half of Dunmore's troops consisted of runaway slaves'. Although Dunmore seems to have acted on his own authority, according to Walker, '[t]he inscription 'Liberty to Slaves', emblazoned across the chests of the Ethiopian Regiment, became a British slogan and de facto a British war policy' (Walker, 1976, pp. 1-2).