Loyalists

Introduction:
The American Revolution was a civil war, but when you examine further, you find an underlying civil war as well. The colonies were not a united force against Britain and the internal dispute between the Patriots and the Loyalists held back the revolutionary movement. The Loyalists, the Tories, the conservatives of the day, were curiously committed to the Old World; the Patriots could not wrap their Whigs around this.

Background:
The British government started to reevaluate the stance it was taking with the governing of it's colonies in the New World after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763. Britain switched from the policy of colonial neglect to a more involved policy because it had a severe need for cash. At the time of the revolution, a citizen living in the colonies was paying only 1 shilling in taxes for every 26 shillings that citizens living back in Britain were paying. To help support the actions that they were taking to support the colonies they started to put into place new taxes. The British government put the following policies/taxes into place:

Proclamation of 1763- This said that they there would be no more settlement of the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains and anyone who had already settled would have to come back. The British government did this because they thought it would help out their relationship with the Indians enough that there would be no more need for troops.

Sugar Act of 1764- Put a tax on the import of molasses from other countries.

Stamp Act- Put a tax on around 50 items that people used in their day to day lives.

Declaratory Act of 1766- Gave Britain the right to create and implement whatever laws that it saw fit in the colonies.

Townsend Act of 1767- Put a tax in place on the imports of products such as glass, paint, lead, paper, and tea from other countries.

Intolerable Acts of 1774- This made the colonists provide housing to British soldiers while they were stationed in the colonies and gave any of those people representing the British government the right to have a trial in England or Canada if they were convicted of a misdoing.

The colonists had gone from a period of colonial neglect in which the British government was not telling them what to do at all, to a period where the British suddenly out of no where started to try and control every aspect of their lives. The colonists did not react very positively to all of these actions, in fact they reacted in a pretty angry fashion. There were riots, boycotts, and fighting going on all over the cities. These taxes were taking a pretty considerable amount of money from the colonists and they were not happy about it. They wanted things to change which is why they took part in riots like the Boston Tea party of 1773 which threw 342 cases of tea into the water of the Boston Harbor. The British enforcement of the laws did not help the colonists opinions of them much either. British troops took the lives of 5 colonists in the Boston Massacre of 1770. The colonists were trying to address the high taxes with the British soldiers when the soldiers opened fire. =**What groups made up the Loyalists:**=
 * African Americans free and slaves
 * White wealthy Colonists
 * Dutch religious groups
 * French religious groups
 * German religious groups
 * Immigrants from Scotland
 * Immigrants from Ireland

=**Why the Loyalists decided to be Loyalists**:= Though some were, Loyalists were not all wealthy land-owners who adored the crown; they came from all different walks of life throughout the colonies. Tories emerged everywhere; they appeared in small towns, rural farms, and luxurious estates. A vast amount sided with Britain because they were newbies to the New World and they still identified themselves as Englishmen. The Old World was not just the source of Parliamentary misconduct; it was still their Home (they wrote it intentionally with a capital H). Many were anti-revolutionary due to the simple fact that they didn’t think they could win. They had little to no faith in the Continental Army and a habituated fear of the Red Coats. How could this disorganized band of men defeat the crown? How could they have ever come to believe they could win? In truth, these people may or may not be considered Loyalists by today’s standards, but at the time, ‘neutral’ was not allowed. If you weren’t for the rebel cause, you were against it; you were a Loyalist.

"Iwasborn aTory, amaTory, and shall dieaTory.Inever yet heard that it was any part of the faith of aTory to take the institutions and liberties, the laws and customs that his country has evolved over the centuries, and mergethem with those of eight other nations into a new-made artificial stateöand what is more, to do so without the willing approbation and consent of the nation." -Powell, (John) Enoch

=﻿ What the people who joined the Loyalists party hoped to gain: = The group of people that made up the loyalists did not want the colonies to separate from Britain and start to rule themselves. These people did not always see eye to eye with Britain on the policies that it was creating, but they choose to not really let their opinions on this subject be known because they did not always feel strongly about them. The members of the loyalists joined because they thought the forces that they colonies were putting together did not have a chance in the world of defeating the British. By choosing the British side their were hoping to be on the positive end of things. Many African Americans joined the loyalist cause as well. Thousands of African Americans joined to work as soldiers, servants, laborers, and spies for the British because they hoped that if the British won then they would release them as free people and end their time serving as slaves.A lot of the immigrants that joined the Loyalists did not like that the plantation owners got to decide how everything was to be done in society. With their joining of the Loyalists they hoped to change how society was run.

=Loyalist Exodus:= Though some were, Loyalists were not all wealthy land-owners who adored the crown; they came from all different walks of life throughout the colonies. Tories emerged everywhere; they appeared in small towns, rural farms, and luxurious estates. A vast amount sided with Britain because they were newbies to the New World and they still identified themselves as Englishmen. The Old World was not just the source of Parliamentary misconduct; it was still their Home (they wrote it intentionally with a capital H). Many were anti-revolutionary due to the simple fact that they didn’t think they could win. They had little to no faith in the Continental Army and a habituated fear of the Red Coats. How could this disorganized band of men defeat the crown? How could they have ever come to believe they could win? In truth, these people may or may not be considered Loyalists by today’s standards, but at the time, ‘neutral’ was not allowed. If you weren’t for the rebel cause, you were against it; you were a Loyalist.  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Patriots viewed the Loyalists as traitors as opposed to the other way around. Remaining loyal to the crown was a dangerous path as pictured here as some loyalists are dangled in the air and being prepped to be tarred and feathered.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">﻿What the Loyalists did after the war:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A good part of the African American slaves that had joined the British cause actually got the freedom that they were hoping for when they initially supported the British. Another part, were tricked into thinking that they were headed to freedom when they were actually headed back into slavery again. This group had people going aboard ships in British ports thinking that they were headed to freedom but really they were just brought into slavery again in the West Indies.Along with that they were tricked by British generals such as Lord Cornwallis. He left 4 thousand African Americans that had been slaves to suffer their own fate in Virginia. The white Loyalists were not welcomed back into society very well after the war. They were not put into slavery like many of the African Americans, they instead faced their own kind of punishment for their actions. The white Loyalists who headed off to Britain did not become apart of society again. They were ignored so much that their lives become quite lonely because no one would have anything to do with them. Most of the Loyalists did not leave the country. The ones that stayed lived with their lives being viewed as a disgrace in society. Along with this they faced punishments such as arrest, having their property taken away, and having their legal rights taken away from them. The property that was taken away from the Loyalists was just simply raffled off in some areas, in other areas like New York and South Carolina the lands had taxes put on them to pay back robbery victims, and other parts of their property was taken away by the patriots to supply their forces. Whatever people wanted from the Loyalists they just took. Loyalists had to accept continental paper money for their services and this was not even worth anything. They also had to pay fines for not taking part in the militias in their area along with many other things that they did that the other colonists felt did not represent what was best for the colonies. Loyalists were not allowed freedoms such as freedom of speech, to serve in public office, or to have a teaching job. They were also forced to leave certain areas to live in different parts of particular states, new states entirely, or another country that was not the United States.

= = =Conclusion:= = = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Loyalists were an interesting phemomenon to the Colonists. They represented a completely ludicrous viewpoint; as Donald Barr Chidsey put it in his book title, they were "Those Americans Who Faught Against Independence". However, if we switch the viewpoint and think of things as if we were a Tory, it isn't so insane. They were fighting for THEIR country.They were fighting for some of the same reasons the Patriots were fighting, for what they believed in. The Loyalists helped shape America and its future, and are too often overlooked. =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bibliography: =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Chidsey, Donald Barr. The Loyalists; the Story of Those Americans Who Fought against Independence. New York: Crown, 1973. Print. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dunn Jr., Walter S. "The Loyalists." Choosing Sides on the Frontier in the American Revolution. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Westport: Praeger, 2007. 79-86. Print. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. "Chapter 8." The American Pageant - A History of the Republic. 13th ed. Boston: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 146-51. Print. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scott, Theodore. "The loyalist sitting on the ground is about to be tarred and feathered. Another loyalist hangs from a rope tied around his waist." Digital <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">image. Google Images. 1776 - An Online Magazine of American History, 10 Apr. 2009. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. <http://www.1776mag.com/wp- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">content/uploads/2009/04/day-of-judgement.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.1776mag.com/tar-and-feather-the-british-6-illustrations/&usg=__HFp4Pf1- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">t1ademYM9uBZwsLID14=&h=947&w=600&sz=192&hl=en&start=35&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=_61- <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ThzQfpDioM:&tbnh=148&tbnw=94&prev=/images?q=loyalists through british eyes&start=20&hl=en&sa=N&gbv=2&ndsp=20&tbs=isch:1>. //The Boston Massacre//. Digital image. //HTI @ OSU//. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. <http://hti.osu.edu/history-lesson-plans/united-states-history/loyalists>. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Tory." Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations. LoveToKnow, n.d. Web. 24 October 2010. [].