The Loyalists In Revolutionary America 1760 1781

Comments on the personalities who criticized or opposed colonial resistance during the pre-Revolutionary period and describes loyalist activity between 1776 and 1781.

Building on the work of his 1989 book, The Loyalist Perception and Other Essays, accomplished historian Robert M. Calhoon returns to the subject of internal strife in the American Revolution with Tory Insurgents. This volume collects revised, updated versions of eighteen groundbreaking articles, essays, and chapters published since 1965, and it also features one essay original to this volume. In a model of scholarly collaboration, coauthors Calhoon, Timothy M. Barnes, and Robert Scott Davis are joined in select pieces by Donald C. Lord, Janice Potter, and Robert M. Weir. Among the topics broached by this noted group of historians are the diverse political ideals represented in the Loyalist stance; the coherence of the Loyalist press; the loyalism of garrison towns, the Floridas, and the Western frontier; Carolina loyalism as viewed by Irish-born patriots Aedanus and Thomas Burke; and the postwar reintegration of Loyalists as citizens of the new nation. Included as well is a chapter and epilogue from Calhoon's seminal—but long out-of-print—1973 study The Loyalists in Revolutionary America, 1760–1781. This updated collection will serve as an unrivaled point of entrance into Loyalist research for scholars and students of the American Revolution.

A Companion to the American Revolution is a single guide to the themes, events, and concepts of this major turning point in early American history. Containing coverage before, during, and after the war, as well as the effect of the revolution on a global scale, this major reference to the period is ideal for any student, scholar, or general reader seeking a complete reference to the field. Contains 90 articles in all, including guides to further reading and a detailed chronological table. Explains all aspects of the revolution before, during, and after the war. Discusses the status and experiences of women, Native Americans, and African Americans, and aspects of social and daily life during this period. Describes the effects of the revolution abroad. Provides complete coverage of military history, including the home front. Concludes with a section on concepts to put the morality of early America in today’s context.

Thousands of British American mainland colonists rejected the War for American Independence. Shunning rebel violence as unnecessary, unlawful, and unnatural, they emphasized the natural ties of blood, kinship, language, and religion that united the colonies to Britain. They hoped that British military strength would crush the minority rebellion and free the colonies to renegotiate their return to the empire. Of course the loyalists were too American to be of one mind. This is a story of how a cross-section of colonists flocked to the British headquarters of New York City to support their ideal of reunion. Despised by the rebels as enemies or as British appendages, New York’s refugees hoped to partner with the British to restore peaceful government in the colonies. The British confounded their expectations by instituting martial law in the city and marginalizing loyalist leaders. Still, the loyal Americans did not surrender their vision but creatively adapted their rhetoric and accommodated military governance to protect their long-standing bond with the mother country. They never imagined that allegiance to Britain would mean a permanent exile from their homes.

Of crucial strategic importance to both the British and the Continental Army, Staten Island was, for a good part of the American Revolution, a bastion of Loyalist support. With its military and political significance, Staten Island provides rich terrain for Phillip Papas's illuminating case study of the local dimensions of the Revolutionary War. Papas traces Staten Island's political sympathies not to strong ties with Britain, but instead to local conditions that favored the status quo instead of revolutionary change. With a thriving agricultural economy, stable political structure, and strong allegiance to the Anglican Church, on the eve of war it was in Staten Island's self-interest to throw its support behind the British, in order to maintain its favorable economic, social, and political climate. Over the course of the conflict, continual occupation and attack by invading armies deeply eroded Staten Island's natural and other resources, and these pressures, combined with general war weariness, created fissures among the residents of “that ever loyal island,” with Loyalist neighbors fighting against Patriot neighbors in a civil war. Papas’s thoughtful study reminds us that the Revolution was both a civil war and a war for independence—a duality that is best viewed from a local perspective.

This book traces the history of those who remained loyal to the crown of Great Britain during the American Revolution. The book delves into the reasons behind loyalism, the political implications of loyalists, and the condition of life as a loyalist in the transition out of the United States.