The Revolutionary War was the first North American civil war over slavery. Lord Dunmore's proclamation, which sent hundreds of thousands of slaves scurrying to freedom, turned the tide of sentiment against the British, which in turn won the war for the colonials.

Before Dunmore's proclamation, which offered freedom to any slave willing to fight for the British, the public was VERY divided between loyalists for the crown and American Brexit. But when Dunmore issued the proclamation, landowners and mercantilists were furious. Thomas Jefferson wanted to keep his nailry on Monticello, with its nine year old boys working as slaves. Others wanted their own child trafficking fiefdoms.

The Boston Tea Party was nothing compared to the influence Dunmore's proclamation had.

Nobody talks about this because the Revolutionaries won.