Ye Loyal Americans

By Enoch Schoolcraft

When the American Revolution began in April of 1775 thousands of colonists joined the rebel cause, hoping to end what they saw as the tyranny of King George III.  But the revolutionary spirit did not infect every American. Many colonial citizens remained loyal to the King and fought to preserve the British Empire and the royal laws in America. Like their patriot neighbors the Loyalists believed that they, too, were fighting for a better and free America.

The Loyalists have been misunderstood and vilified since the Revolution ended in 1783. George Washington called them "unhappy wretches" and "deluded mortals." A popular rebel expression stated that a Loyalist was "a thing whose head is in England, and its body in America, and its neck ought to be stretched." Loyalists were called "Tories," a term that labeled a person as a die-hard supporter of the King and absolute royal power.

History has not been kind to the loyal Americans who fought, died, and in most cases were exiled from America during the Revolution. But who were the Loyalists? Ann Gorman Condon, associate professor of history at the University of New Brunswick at St. John, Canada, writes that there were three categories of Loyalists.

The people in the first category were Loyalists because they had "a vested interest in the imperial establishment" and these were the people you'd expect to remain loyal to the King: colonial governors, royal officials, judges, and Anglican ministers. Their positions depended on loyalty to George III.

The second category of Loyalists were people who belonged to religious and cultural minorities. They remained loyal because they feared increasing American power- power that could destroy them. British tolerance and protection offered these minorities a chance for survival. This category included French Huguenots, Catholics, Quakers as well as blacks (free and slave) and the Native American Indians. All of these groups felt that British rulers had their best interests at heart more so than the Americans. It is interesting-to note that these groups chose British "tolerance" over American "freedom."

The third category of Loyalists were the Tory elite, the people who opposed the Revolution "out of principle." These were the people who wrote pamphlets, organized regiments, and drafted plans to defeat the rebels. These were men such as John Johnson, son of Sir William Johnson, Oliver DeLancey, Alexander McKee, and Matthew Elliot. These people opposed the Revolution because they had hoped to maintain America as a stable part of the British Empire, and seriously doubted that American self-rule would lead all men to be "free." Many also feared that once the rebels gained power America would be ruled by the mob, as was evident in Boston in 1773. Reverend Mather Byles, a noted Tory, wrote, "Which is better-to be ruled by one tyrant 3000 miles away or 3000 tyrants not a mile away?" Many Loyalists felt the same way.

When armed conflict broke out in 1775 America found itself embroiled in civil war. Just as thousands flocked to join the American army, many Loyalists formed armies of their own. Irregulars, loyal militias, independent companies, and a fully armed Loyalist Provincial Corps were raised to fight the rebels. These groups fought with British regulars as well as independently and served throughout the thirteen colonies and Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Quebec, and even in Jamaica and the Bahamas!
There were many instances of Loyalist troops proving themselves as first-rate soldiers throughout the Revolution. At the Battle of Oriskany on August 6, 1777,

Loyalists, mostly the Royal Yorkers, as well as their Indian allies, fought against a patriot force, many of whom were the Yorkers' neighbors. The Loyalist force won a decisive victory. The Queen's Loyal Rangers proved to be "spirited and gallant" at Brandywine on October 6, 1777, and as late as 1782 Loyalist rangers and His Majesty's Indian allies were still fighting all along the Ohio-Kentucky frontier.

Some of the Loyalist regiments became quite famous for their exploits. Butler's Rangers were organized in 1777 and most of the men who served were from New York's Mohawk Valley. This regiment served all along the New York frontier and Canada for the remainder of the war.

Every one of the 13 colonies fielded Loyalist regiments against the rebels and the Crown was well served by units such as the United Provincial Corps of Pennsylvania and Maryland Loyalists, the North Carolina Highlanders, the New Jersey Volunteers, and the East Florida Rangers.

Minority groups also formed military units to stand up to the rebels, and the Americans found themselves facing groups like the Royal Catholic Volunteers, the Company of Negroes, the Volunteers of Ireland, and Skinner's Cowboys from New Jersey.
Of course, His Majesty's Indian Allies served the Crown, and blacks were well represented on the battlefield. Along with the aforementioned Company of Negroes, black Loyalists served in units like the "Ethiopian Regiment," whose uniforms had "Liberty to Slaves" across the chest. Those who also served were the Black Pioneers and the British Negro Horse, a dragoon regiment.
Like the Indians, who gave much to the Crown and received little in return, black Loyalists would discover that British promises were not easily kept for minorities. Royal land bounties for faithful service that were promised rarely came about for the blacks. Even when fleeing to Canada or other countries black Loyalists were still treated as second-class citizens- even by exiled white Loyalists who had served beside them during the War.

By 1781 George III and Parliament realized that fighting against the rebels was becoming a hopeless cause. The upkeep for troops in the thirteen colonies was costing the Crown millions of pounds. The French, and then the Spanish, allied themselves with the Americans. In October of 1781 Cornwallis surrendered a major British army at Yorktown, and although 30,000 regular and Loyalist troops still remained active throughout America, Britain had had enough. The war weary nation asked for peace and on November 30, 1782 the preliminary peace treaty was signed between the new United States and Great Britain. Separate treaties were also signed with France and Spain. The final version of the treaty was signed in September 1783.

One of the points of contention throughout the peace negotiations was the question of what to do about the American Loyalists. The American negotiators felt that they should not even be mentioned in the treaty, but the British felt that some concessions should be made for their loyal supporters, many of whom had had land and property seized or destroyed during the War.

Finally a compromise was hammered out. The American delegates agreed that Congress would recommend to each of the thirteen states that they restore seized Loyalist property, redress grievances, and allow exiled Tories to return home.  Unknown to the British delegates, this American concession was meaningless. They thought that a Congressional "recommendation" was the same as Parliamentary "advice" to the King, which was as good as law. Not one of the thirteen states paid any attention to the "recommendation," and in fact, most of the states were passing new laws to punish the defeated Loyalists!

The years immediately following the Revolution were a nightmare for the loyalAmericans. As had been done throughout the War, loyalist property was seized by state governments and was often given to Continental soldiers as a reward for their service in the Rebellion. For the Loyalists whose property had been seized, as well as for those who had no desire to live under the new American government, the only choice left was exile.

It is estimated that around 50,000 Loyalists either voluntarily left or were exiled from the thirteen colonies during the years of the American Revolution. While many elected to go to England, the vast majority of these exiles fled to Canada. The British colonies of Nova Scotia and Upper Canada gladly accepted the loyal Americans and settlements soon sprang up throughout these colonies. In fact, these provinces flourished because of the Loyalist exiles. The Loyalists, for their part, felt at home in Canada, free from rebel persecution. Many ex-soldiers also received land grants in Canada as a reward for their services to the Crown during the War.

Many black Loyalists fled the United States as well, but as mentioned earlier, Canada wasn't the "promised land" for them as it was for white Tories. Many of the blacks left for the West Indies, Bahamas, and Jamaica where some found a better life; but many remained as slaves and were put to work on the sugar plantations.  Of all Loyalist groups, only the Indian tribes were "left out in the cold" so to speak. British agents had ignored the plight of His Majesty's Indian Allies during the peace negotiations, and tribal lands throughout New York, Ohio, and Kentucky had been turned over to the Americans as a peace concession.

The Americans considered the Indians to be defeated enemies and did little to help the tribes. But the newly created United States would soon find itself embroiled in a prolonged Indian war with the Loyalist tribes throughout the 1780's and 1790's. These tribes would also support Britain once again during the War of 1812. By the end of that conflict all tribal lands east of the Mississippi River would be firmly under American control and tribes such as the Shawnee, Lenape, Miami, and Potawatomi would be dispersed or destroyed.

Whether they were white, black, red, male or female, the Loyal Americans played an important role in American colonial history. The fact that their side lost the American Revolution has not diminished their sacrifices or their accomplishments. First and foremost they were Americans fighting for a cause they believed in, just like their Patriot friends and neighbors. Their deeds should not be diminished or forgotten.


Bibliography


The Loyal Americans. The Military Role of the Loyalist Provincial Corps and Their Settlement in British North America, 1775-1784. Robert S. Allen, General Editor, Canadian War Museum, National Museum of Canada, 1983

The Loyalists: Revolution, Exile, Settlement. Christopher Moore, McClelland and Stewart, Inc., 1994


Submitted by Ritch Smith