Ed Helms

Perfect.

Well, I'm wondering any final thoughts on this story.

Most people, when we think of the emancipation of slaves, we think of the Civil War.

I think a lot of historians actually –

point to this moment as, even if Dunmore's motives were not sort of like morally based, they point to this moment as a kind of turning point in the perception of the value of freedom for the enslaved population and the sort of consideration of freedom for the

enslaved population in the colonies and what became the United States.

And that this was in many ways a precursor to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

Yeah.

Jason Kuznicki Absolutely.

There's a very interesting governmental strategic consideration here.

Bad leadership doesn't just fail at leadership.

It can often mobilize the opposition, right?

So, Dunmore, he didn't just make these unpopular decisions.

He actively radicalized his opponents.

Yeah, he manifested his downfall.

Right.

He radicalized people who might have otherwise just been neutral.

So like his dissolving of the House of Burgesses, the seizure of gunpowder, his emancipation proclamation, they weren't just tactical blunders.

They were accelerants against his his interests.

The blowback can just be so much more consequential than simply the failure to advance your cause.