Episode 12 — The Gunpowder Incident (April 1775)

Days after Lexington and Concord, Virginia Governor Lord Dunmore secretly orders Royal Marines to remove the gunpowder from the Williamsburg magazine onto a British warship. Patrick Henry marches on Williamsburg with militia to demand compensation; the crisis is defused when Dunmore pays Henry for the powder. But Dunmore also threatens to free enslaved people to fight the rebels — a threat he later makes good on with Lord Dunmore's Proclamation. The incident radicalizes Virginia moderates who had been sitting on the fence.