Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to
the Kingdom of Great
Britain
(and the British monarchy) during and
after the American
Revolutionary War. They were often referred to as
Tories,
Royalists, or
King's Men
by the
Patriots, those
that supported the revolution.
When their cause was defeated, about 20% of
the Loyalists left the US to resettle in other parts of the
British Empire, in Britain
or elsewhere in British North America (especially
New
Brunswick
), where they
were called United Empire
Loyalists; some went to the British West Indies, especially the
Bahamas
). Black
Loyalists made up some of the Loyalist community. They lost all
the property left behind, but were compensated by British claims
procedures.
Historians have estimated that between 15 and 20 percent of the
white population of the colonies were Loyalists. Historian Robert
Middlekauff estimates that about 500,000 colonists, or 19 percent
of the
white population, remained loyal
to Britain.
Loyalists in wartime
By July 4, 1776 the Patriots had gained control of virtually all
territory in the 13 colonies, expelling all royal officials. No one
was allowed to remain who openly proclaimed their loyalty to the
king. For the moment Loyalists fled or kept quiet; some of those
who remained later gave aid to invading British armies or joined
uniformed Loyalist regiments that fought for the king.
The
British had been forced out of Boston
by March 17,
1776; but they returned to New York
in August to
convincingly defeat George
Washington's army at Long Island
and in doing so, captured New York City
and its vicinity, where they remained until
1783. From time to time they also seized control of
other cities such as Philadelphia
(1777), Savannah (1778–83)
and Charleston (1780–82), together with
various slices of countryside. However, 90% of the colonial
population lived outside the cities. The result was that the
Congress always controlled 80–90% of the population.
The British removed
their governors from colonies where the Patriots were in control,
but Loyalist civilian government was re-established in coastal
Georgia
1779–82, although the Americans still controlled
the northern part of the state. The British were only able
to maintain power where they had a strong military presence.
About Canada
In
Canada
, rebel agents were active, especially John Brown,
agent of the Boston
Committee of Correspondence, along with Canadian merchant
Thomas Walker, a rebel sympathiser, and others, during the winter
of 1774–1775. They won over some inhabitants to sympathy
with the
US Congress. However others —
probably the large majority — remained neutral, also not joining
the militia which the British had called out to protect against the
rebel invasion in late 1775.
Although only a minority openly expressed
loyalty to King George: about 1500 militia fought for the King in
the Siege of Fort
St. Jean
. In the region south of Montreal occupied by
the rebels, some inhabitants supported them and raised two
regiments to join them.
In Nova Scotia
, a large settlement of Yankees tried to win more
support, but with the powerful British naval base there, this was
quickly stamped out.
Loyalists in the Thirteen Colonies
Historian
Robert Calhoun wrote
concerning the proportion of loyalists and rebels:
Earlier estimates were somewhat higher, reaching one-third of the
population, but are no longer accepted by most scholars. Adams did
indeed estimate in another letter, that year, that in the American
Revolution, the Patriots had to struggle against approximately
one-third of the population, while they themselves constituted
about two-thirds of it. He did not mention neutrals In the late
1960s
Paul H. Smith arrived at the lower figure of 19.8% by
statistical calculations based on the strength of the loyalist
regiments fighting for the British.
Historian
Robert Middlekauff
summarizes scholarly research on who was a Loyalist as follows:
The largest number of loyalist were found in the middle
colonies: many tenant farmers of New York supported the king, for
example, as did many of the Dutch in the colony and in New Jersey.
The Germans in Pennsylvania tried to stay out of the Revolution,
just as many Quakers did, and when that failed, clung to the
familiar connection rather than embrace the new. Highland Scots in
the Carolinas, a fair number of Anglican clergy and their
parishioners in Connecticut and New York, a few Presbyterians in
the southern colonies, and a large number of the Iroquois Indians
stayed loyal to the king.
New York City and Long Island (the British military and political
base of operations in North America from 1776 to 1783) had a large
concentration of Loyalists, many of whom were refugees from other
states.
Calhoun (1973) shows that Loyalists tended to be older, more likely
merchants and wealthier, but there were also many Loyalists of
humble means. Many active
Church of
England members became Loyalists.
Some recent arrivals
from Britain
, especially
Scots, had a high Loyalist proportion.
Loyalists in the southern colonies, however, were suppressed by the
local Revolutionaries who controlled local and state government.
Many
people — such as some of the ex-Regulators in North
Carolina
— refused to
join the Revolutionaries as they had earlier protested against
corruption by the local authorities who later became Revolutionary
leaders. Such pre-Revolutionary War oppression by the local
Whigs contributed to the reason that much of
backcountry North Carolina tended to be loyalist.
In areas under rebel control— that is most of the country —
Loyalists were subject to
confiscation of property. Outspoken
supporters of the king were threatened with public humiliation
(such as
tarring and
feathering) or physical attack. It is not known how many
Loyalist civilians were harassed by the Patriots, but the treatment
was a warning to other Loyalists not to take up arms. Two
Philadelphia residents were executed for actively aiding the
British army when it occupied the city.
In September 1775
William Drayton and Loyalist leader
Colonel Thomas Fletchall signed a
treaty of neutrality in the interior community of Ninety
Six
, South
Carolina
.
Black Loyalists and slavery
As a result of the looming crisis in 1775 the Royal Governor of
Virginia,
Lord Dunmore, issued a
proclamation that promised freedom to servants and
slaves who were able to bear arms and join his
Loyalist Ethiopian regiment.
About 800 did so and were able to
convincingly rout the Virginia militia at the Battle of
Kemp's Landing
. They then fought the Battle of
Great Bridge
on the Elizabeth
River, wearing the motto "Liberty to Slaves," but this time
they were defeated. The remains of their regiment were then
involved in the
evacuation of
Norfolk, after which they served in the
Chesapeake area. Unfortunately the camp that they
had set up there suffered an outbreak of
smallpox and other diseases. This took a heavy
toll, putting many of them out of action for some time. The
survivors joined other British units and continued to serve
throughout the war. Blacks were often the first to come forward to
volunteer and a total of 12,000 blacks served with the British from
1775 to 1783. This factor had the effect of forcing the rebels to
also offer freedom to those who would serve in the Continental
army. This promise was not kept after the war.
About 400 to 1000 free blacks went to London and joined the
community of about 10,000 free blacks there.
About 3500 to 4000
went to the British colonies of Nova Scotia
and New
Brunswick
, where the
British provided them with land. Over 1,500 settled in
Birchtown,
Nova Scotia
, instantly making it the largest free black
community in North America. However, mainly because they
were willing to work for less money than their white counterparts,
some old prejudices crept back in.
Britain, still wishing to stand by their
commitment, offered to transport those that were dissatisfied
elsewhere, so about 1,500 left Nova Scotia for the British colony
of Sierra
Leone
in Africa where they named
the capital, Freetown
. After 1787 they became Sierra Leone's
ruling elite.
Canada
French Canadians had been appeased
by the British government's
Quebec Act of
1774, which offered religious and linguistic toleration, and were
less receptive to the
Declaration of Independence.
While some Canadians took up arms for the republicans, the majority
remained loyal to the King.
Because
the British had only captured Quebec in 1759
, most of the English-speaking settlers there were newly
arrived and many were British-born - a group which was generally
less likely to support separation from Britain. The older British
colonies such as Nova
Scotia
and Newfoundland
also remained loyal to the crown, and contributed
military forces.
In 1775 the rebels, led by Major General Benedict Arnold and
Colonel Montegomery, sent a force into the
Province of Quebec,
hoping to recruit it into joining the revolution. They were turned
back by a combination of the British military under Governor
Guy Carleton, the
difficult terrain, and an indifferent local response.
1,500
Canadians also took part in a British expedition that eventually
led to the surrender of Burgoyne at the
Battle of
Saratoga
in 1777. After the entry of France into the
war in 1778, many Canadians feared that an effort would be made by
the French to reclaim their old Canadian lands, which contributed
further to
Anglo-Canadian support for
the British crown.
During
peace negotiations in Paris, negotiators from the United States
made repeated attempts to acquire territory in what is now Canada,
but were unsuccessful in the final settlement, except for what is
now Michigan
. Although the British posts at Detroit
and Mackinac (administered
as part of the Province
of Quebec) had never been challenged during the war, all
territory "south of the lakes" was nevertheless included in the
settlement. Michigan would not come under American control
until 1796.
Military service
The Loyalists rarely attempted any political organization. They
were often passive unless regular British army units were in the
area. The British, however, assumed a highly activist Loyalist
community was ready to mobilize and planned much of their strategy
around raising Loyalist regiments. The British provincial line,
consisting of Americans enlisted on a regular army status, enrolled
19,000 loyalists (50 units and 312 companies). Another 10,000
served in loyalist
militia or
"associations." The maximum strength of the Loyalist provincial
line was 9,700 in December 1780. In all about 50,000 at one time or
another were soldiers or militia in British forces, including
15,000 from the main Loyalist stronghold of New York. The majority
of Loyalists fought in the southern colonies and were not from the
north. In addition, a large number of Americans served in the
regular British army and in the
Royal
Navy.
Emigration
The vast majority of the white Loyalists (450-500,000) remained
where they lived during and after the war. Starting in the
mid-1780s a small percentage of those who had left returned to the
United States.
During and following the end of the
American Revolutionary War in
1783, Loyalists (especially soldiers and former officials) could
choose evacuation. Loyalists whose roots were not yet deeply
embedded in the
New World were more likely
to leave; older people who had familial bonds and had acquired
friends, property, and a degree of social respectability were more
likely to remain in the US.
Approximately ten to fifteen percent of the Loyalists left (about
62,000 white Loyalists, or about 2 percent of the total US
population of 3 million in 1783). The figure of 100,000 Loyalists
is often given for the number who went into exile, but this figure
is an estimation that could be more accurate if it included
Native American
and
African-American Loyalists and
emigrants to Canada from the USA from 1783 to 1800. Many of these
later emigrants were motivated by the desire to take advantage of
the British government's offer of free land, but many also were
disillusioned by the continuing hostility to Tories and eventually
decided to leave the new Republic.
About 46,000 went to British North America (present-day Canada).
Of these
34,000 went to Nova
Scotia
, 2,000 to Prince Edward Island
and 10,000 to Ontario
. 7,000 went to Great Britain and 9,000 to the
Bahamas
and British
colonies in the Caribbean
. The 34,000 who went to Nova Scotia, where
they were not well received by the Nova Scotians who were mostly
descendants of New Englanders settled there before the Revolution,
so the colony of New
Brunswick
, until 1784
part of Nova Scotia, was created for the 14,000 who had settled in
those parts. Of the 46,000 who went to Canada, 10,000
went to the Province
of Quebec
, especially the Eastern Townships of Quebec and modern-day
Ontario
. The
Haldimand Collection is the main source
for historians in the study of American Loyalist settlement in
Canada.
Realizing the importance of some type of consideration, on November
9, 1789,
Lord
Dorchester, the governor of Quebec, declared that it was his
wish to "put the mark of Honour upon the Families who had adhered
to the Unity of the
Empire." As a
result of Dorchester's statement, the printed militia rolls carried
the notation:
Those Loyalists who have adhered to the Unity of the
Empire, and joined the Royal Standard before the Treaty of Separation in the year
1783, and all their Children and their Descendants by either sex,
are to be distinguished by the following Capitals, affixed to their
names: U.E. Alluding to their great principle The Unity of the
Empire.
The
postnominals "U.E." are
rarely seen today, but the influence of the Loyalists on the
evolution of Canada remains. Their ties to Britain and their
antipathy to the United States provided the strength needed to keep
Canada independent and distinct in North America. The Loyalists'
basic distrust of
republicanism and
"
mob rule" influenced
Canada's gradual path to
independence.
The new British North American provinces of
Upper Canada (the forerunner of
Ontario) and New
Brunswick
were founded
as places of refuge for the United Empire Loyalists.
The wealthiest and most prominent Loyalist exiles went to Great
Britain to rebuild their careers; many received pensions.
Many
Southern Loyalists, taking along their slaves, went to the West Indies
and the Bahamas
,
particularly to the Abaco
Islands
.
Many
Loyalists brought their slaves with them to Canada (mostly to areas
that later became Ontario
and New
Brunswick
) where
slavery was legal. An
imperial law in 1790 assured prospective immigrants to Canada that
their slaves would remain their property.
Thousands of
Iroquois and other
Native Americans were
expelled from New York and other states and resettled in Canada.
The descendants of one such group of Iroquois, led by
Joseph Brant Thayendenegea, settled at
Six Nations of the
Grand River, the largest
First
Nations reserve in Canada.
A group
of African-American Loyalists settled in Nova Scotia but emigrated
again for Sierra
Leone
after facing discrimination there.
Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford)
was a loyalist who fled to London when the war began. He became a
scientist noted for pioneering
thermodynamics and for his research on
artillery ordnance. He expressed a
desire to return to the United States in 1799 and was eagerly
sought by the Americans (who needed help in fighting the
Quasi-War with France).
Rumford eventually
decided to stay in London because he was engrossed with
establishing the Royal Institution
in England.
Many of the Loyalists were forced to abandon substantial amounts of
property, and restoration of or compensation for this lost property
was a major issue during the negotiation of the
Jay Treaty in 1794.
Return of some exiles
The great majority of Loyalists never left the United States, they
stayed on and were recognized as citizens of the new country. Some
became nationally prominent leaders, including
Samuel Seabury and
Tench Coxe.
Alexander Hamilton enlisted the help of
the ex-Loyalists in New York in 1782-85 to forge an alliance with
moderate Whigs to wrest the state from the power of the Clinton
faction. Several thousand of those who had left for Florida
returned to Georgia. There was a small, but significant trickle of
returnees who found life in Nova Scotia too difficult. Some
Massachusetts Tories settled in the Maine District. Nevertheless
the vast majority who did leave never returned.
Captain Benjamin Hallowell, who, as Mandamus Councilor in
Massachusetts, served as the direct representative of the Crown. In
that role, he was considered by the insurgents as one of the most
hated men in the Colony but as a token of compensation when he
returned from England in 1796, his son was allowed to regain the
family house.
[94508]
Impact of the departure of Loyalist leaders
The departure of so many royal officials, rich merchants and landed
gentry destroyed the hierarchical networks that had dominated most
of the colonies. In New York, the departure of key members of the
DeLancy, DePester Walton and Cruger families undercut the
interlocking families that largely owned and controlled the Hudson
Valley. Likewise in Pennsylvania, the departure of powerful
families--Penn, Allen, Chew, Shippen--destroyed the cohesion of the
old upper class there. New men became rich merchants but they
shared a spirit of republican equality that replaced the elitism
and the Americans never recreated such a powerful upper class. One
rich patriot in Boston noted in 1779 that "fellows who would have
cleaned my shoes five years ago, have amassed fortunes and are
riding in chariots."
Prominent Loyalists
- William
Allen, wealthy merchant, Chief Justice of the Province of Pennsylvania and former
mayor of Philadelphia

- Samuel Aikens, 02 JUN 1785 Land grant Guysborough, Nova Scotia
Canada
- Benedict Arnold, Brigadier
General, commissioned about close of 1780, originally a
Revolutionary general
- John Askin, trader
and land speculator at Detroit

- William Augustus
Bowles
- Joseph Brant Thayendenegea, Mohawk
war leader
- Thomas Brown, LTC
commanding King's Rangers in Georgia
- Montford Browne, Brigadier General, commanding Prince of Wales
American Regiment, 1777
- John Butler, Colonel
commanding Butler's Rangers in the Mohawk Valley)
- Walter Butler (Capt. in
Butler's Rangers and son of John
Butler)
- Lt. Col. James Chalmers, Commander,
First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists and author of anti-"Common Sense" pamphlet entitled "Plain Truth" in 1776
- Myles Cooper, president of King's
College in New York City
- Robert Cunningham, Brigadier General, in 1780 in command of a
garrison in South Carolina
- Oliver DeLancey, Brigadier General, commanding Delancey's
Brigade 1776
- Abraham DePeyster, Officer of King's American Regiment
- Arent DePeyster, Officer of the
8th Regiment of Foot
- William Franklin, Governor of New Jersey, son of
Benjamin Franklin
- Joseph Galloway, Pennsylvania
politician
- Simon Girty, served as a liaison
between the British and their Native American allies during the
American Revolution
- Reuben Hankinson, Ensign, First New Jersey Volunteers,
September 1780
- John Howe, printer of the
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly
News-Letter
- Thomas Hutchinson,
last royal Governor of
Massachusetts
- Edward Jessup, Colonel of Jessup's
Rangers near Albany, New York and his two brothers Ebenezer and
Joseph.
- Sir John Johnson, commander of
the King's Royal
Regiment of New York)
- Thomas Jones, historian
- Elisha
Leavitt, Hingham, Massachusetts
merchant and landowner
- Daniel Leonard
- John
Lovell, headmaster of the Boston Latin School

- Isaac Low, New York merchant
- Gabriel Ludlow, New York merchant
- George Ludlow, New York judge
- Flora
MacDonald, Scottish Jacobite heroine
- Alexander McKee, liaison between
the British and the Shawnees
- James Moody, Lieutenant, First New Jersey Volunteers, March
1781
- John Randolph,
King's attorney for the Province of
Virginia
- Beverley Robinson, Colonel,
Loyal American Regiment
- Robert Rogers, commander
of Rogers' Rangers/Queen's Rangers to 1777 (now The
Queen's York Rangers ), innovator of ranging tactics
- Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson),
scientist
- Peggy Shippen, Philadelphia
socialite and second wife of Benedict Arnold
- John Graves Simcoe, commander
of Queen's Rangers from 1777 (now
The
Queen's York Rangers [94509]),
and founding Governor of the colony of Upper Canada (today: The Province of Ontario,
Canada)
- Cortlandt Skinner, Brigadier
General, commanding New Jersey Volunteers, Sept. 4, 1776
- William Stark, brother of General
John Stark
- John Taylor, Captain, First New Jersey Volunteers, January
1781
- Col. Daniel Clary's Reg. Dutch Fork Militia, 96 Brigade. South
Carolina 1773-1783
- Thomas
Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron
See also
Notes
- The Americans promised in the peace treaty to recommend that
states redress the losses, but that seldom happened. Exiled
loyalists received ₤3 million or about 37% of their losses from
Britain. Loyalists who stayed in the U.S. retained their property.
Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole, eds, A Companion to the American
Revolution (2004) pp. 246, 399, 641-2
- Calhoon, "Loyalism and neutrality" p. 235
- Middlekauff (2005) pp. 563-564
- Middlekauff (2005)
- Georgia Encyclopædia.
- Mason Wade, The French Canadians (1955) 1:67–9.
- John Adams has
sometimes been cited as having claimed, in a 1813 letter, that
one-third of the American people supported the revolution and
one-third were against. However, the passage in question actually
refers to the French Revolution of 1789. see
Only
1/3rd of Americans Supported the American Revolution?, by
William Marina. 6-28-2004. Retrieved on July 14, 2008.
- See The American Revolution and the Minority Myth.
January 1, 1975. By William Marina. Retrieved on July 14 2008;
"The Works of John Adams", Volume X, p. 63: To Thomas McKean,
August 1813.
- Lucas, Jeffery P. 2007 Cooling by Degrees:
Reintegration of Loyalists in North Carolina, 1776-1790. M.A.,
NCSU. pp.3-4
- Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The
American Revolution, 1763–1789 (1985), p 550.
- Calhoun 1973
- See online NPS.gov
- American Revolution - African Americans In The
Revolutionary Period
- Smith 264–7.
- Calhoon 502.
- Van Tyne, pp. 182–3.
- Lohrenz (1998)
- Canada, A People's History Volume 1
- Patrick Bode, "Upper Canada, 1793: Simcoe and the Slaves."
Beaver 1993 73(3): 17-19
- Bradley 1974
- Gordon Wood, The radicalism of the American Revolution
(1991) pp. 176-77; quote on p 177.
- Hankinson Online: An Online Resource for Hankinson
Genealogy
- Historical Biographies, Nova Scotia,
1800-1867
References
- Bailyn, Bernard. The
Contagion of Liberty. In The Ideological Origins of the
American Revolution, enlarged edition, 230-319. (1992).
- Bailyn, Bernard. The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson: Loyalism
and the Destruction of the First British Empire (1974), full
scale biography of the most prominent Loyalist
- Bradley, James E. "The Reprieve of a Loyalist: Count Rumford's
Invitation Home." New England Quarterly 1974 47(3):
368-385. ISSN 0028-4866 in Jstor
- Brown, Wallace. The King's Friends: The Composition and
Motives of the American Loyalist Claimants (1966).
- Calhoon, Robert M. "Loyalism and neutrality" in Jack P. Greene
and J.R. Pole, eds., The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American
Revolution (1991)
- Calhoon, Robert M. The Loyalists in Revolutionary America,
1766-1781 (1973), the most detailed study
- Robert M. Calhoon, Timothy M. Barnes and George A. Rawlyk, eds.
Loyalists and Community in North America (1994).
- Jensen, Merrill; The New Nation: A History of the United
States during the Confederation, 1781-1789 1950; detailed
discussion of return of Loyalists, popular anger at their return;
repeal of wartime laws against them
- Kermes, Stephanie. "'I Wish for Nothing More Ardent upon Earth,
than to See My Friends and Country Again': The Return of
Massachusetts Loyalists." Historical Journal of
Massachusetts 2002 30(1): 30-49. ISSN 0276-8313
- Kerber, Linda. Women of the Republic: Intellect and
Ideology in Revolutionary America (1997)
- Knowles, Norman. Inventing the Loyalists: The Ontario
Loyalist Tradition and the Creation of Usable Pasts (1997)
explores the identities and loyalties of those who moved to
Canada.
- Lohrenz, Otto; "The Advantage of Rank and Status: Thomas Price,
a Loyalist Parson of Revolutionary Virginia." The
Historian. 60#3 (1998) pp 561+. online
- Middlekauff, Robert. "The Glorious Cause: The American
Revolution, 1763–1789." (2005 edition)
- Moore, Christopher. The Loyalist: Revolution Exile
Settlement. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, (1994).
- Mason, Keith. “The American Loyalist Diaspora and the
Reconfiguration of the British Atlantic World.” In Empire and
Nation: The American Revolution and the Atlantic World, ed.
Eliga H. Gould and Peter S. Onuf (2005).
- Nelson, William H. The American Tory (1961)
- Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary
Experience of American Women, 1750-1800 (1996)
- Peck, Epaphroditus; The Loyalists of Connecticut Yale
University Press, (1934) online
- Potter, Janice. The Liberty We Seek: Loyalist Ideology in
Colonial New York and Massachusetts (1983).
- Quarles, Benjamin; Black Mosaic: Essays in Afro-American
History and Historiography University of Massachusetts Press.
(1988)
- Smith, Paul H. "The American Loyalists: Notes on Their
Organization and Numerical Strength," William and Mary
Quarterly 25 (1968): 259-77. in JSTOR
- Van Tyne, Claude Halstead. The Loyalists in the American
Revolution (1902) online
- Mason Wade, The French Canadians: 1760-1945 (1955) 2
vol.
External links