Resource person: Audra Bullard

Description:

As the American Revolution broke out in New England in the spring of 1775, dramatic events unfolded far to the south that proved every bit as decisive as the battles of Lexington and Concord in uniting the colonies against Britain. Virginia, the largest, wealthiest, and most populous province in British North America, was governed by Lord Dunmore, a pugnacious Scottish earl. Outgunned and outmanned, he allied with the colony’s enslaved Africans, emancipating those who would fight for King George III. Soon, two groups of liberty-seeking Americans were battling one another, a conflict that led to the complete demolition of a major city and the decisive vote by Virginia patriots to seek independence. This is the story Andrew Lawler, a journalist who has written for The New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Science and Archaeology, tells in his acclaimed new book, “Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution” (2025). To discuss the book and this episode in American Revolutionary history (and, perhaps, to test its historical accuracy), he will be joined in conversation with Woody Holton, professor of American History at the University of South Carolina.

 

Andrew Lawler is a journalist and author who has written about history, science, religion, and politics from dozens of countries. Andrew’s byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many other publications. He is a contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology, as well as a National Geographic Explorer and a Pulitzer Center grantee. His work has won a number of journalism awards, and appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing. He is author of four books: “A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution,” the prize-winning “Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City,” the national bestseller “The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke,” and the acclaimed “Why Did The Chicken Cross The World: The Epic Saga Of The Bird That Powers Civilization.”

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