So You Don’t Want a Revolution?

The American Revolution was our first Civil War. The dictionary defines a Civil War as a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country.

In the months leading up to 1776, American colonists were divided into two camps, patriots and loyalists. That included rabid patriots who wanted to be rid of British rule no matter what and loyalists who ranged from citizens simply loyal to the crown to those with financial ties to Britain that would suffer in an all-out revolution. Americans who elected not to choose a side were called Neutrals.

These were not elite families with ties to the crown or the military but merchants, farmers, Native Americans, and enslaved people who preferred the known problems and issues of British rule over an uncharted future after independence.

Owe money to the Crown or British creditors? A Patriot win could erase your debts, but for the merchant holding a lucrative contract with the Crown, you had to support the British. For the many who were appointed to posts within the royal government, their income depended on the British retaining power.

It’s estimated that more than 20,000 runaway slaves joined the British during the American Revolution, the largest exodus before the Civil War. There were several reasons enslaved men of color supported the British. Many had seen notices of an important 1772 ruling by a British judge that found chattel slavery incompatible with English common law and interpreted it as abolishing slavery. The British advertised themselves as a stronghold of freedom with proclamations promising liberty to runaways. In Dummore’s Proclamation in 1775, the last royal governor of Virginia offered freedom to “all indented Servants, Negroes, or others… that are able and willing to bear Arms.” More than 1,500 slaves answered his promise. Sir Henry Clinton’s Philipsburg Proclamation, issued in 1779, offered freedom to all slaves owned by rebelling Americans.

Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea in his native Mohawk language, was the most famous of the Native American loyalists, convincing four of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy to fight for the British. Brant, educated by the British and fluent in all of the six tribal languages, argued that the British were more likely to uphold their land agreements with

the Indians than the new Americans. The Iroquois had a general distrust of Americans grown out of many years of losing territory to the expanding colonist population.

Colonists who elected not to choose a side were called Neutrals. Some neutrals could see valid points in both Patriot and Loyalist positions, while others were waiting it out so as not to end up on the losing side. Some colonists, the Quakers for example, remained neutral for religious or moral reasons. Quakers considered it unethical to serve in a militia or fight for either side. But as the war progressed and the rhetoric heated up, it became almost impossible not to declare a side.

For the 20 percent of the colonists who declared themselves Loyal, life grew progressively hard, especially if you continued doing business with the British, wrote in their support, or worse, joined their army. Branded as ‘traitors,’ they all faced harassment and worse.

Known Loyalists were intimidated, abused, jailed or stripped of their property for the duration of the revolution. Speaking of stripping, British Customs Agent John Malcolm, a fervent Loyalist, was tarred and feathered not once, but twice by patriot mobs. His mistake was mocking them for doing a lousy job the first time; the mob stormed his house, stripped him of his clothes and covered him in hot tar and feathers, and paraded him through town. When he returned to Britain, he carried with him a box containing the skin he lost in removing the tar.

As the British pulled out of city after city, up to thousands of loyalists went with the retreating army back to Britain, north to Canada or to the Caribbean or Spanish Florida. At the war’s conclusion, between 60,000 and 80,000 Americans had left the country.

Most Loyalists faced financial hardship in their new homes. While the articles of the peace treaty included promises of restitution and the British Parliament attempted to provide compensation, most would never see their property returned or restored. For the thousands of Black Loyalists, the British kept their word and negotiated “certificates of freedom” for 3,000 formerly enslaved people. Those who settled in Nova Scotia faced violence, poverty, and famine, and of those who fled to the Caribbean, many would be resold into slavery.

After abandoning their homes and seeking refuge in Canada, Loyalists were in for a second American assault, the War of 1812, and President Jefferson’s invasion of the country. Struggling to rebuild their lives on poor land, the Loyalists would once again have to defend the British Crown and their property against American armies. This time, they won; the Americans retreated, hindered by poorly prepared troops and overcome by the rough terrain and wild conditions of Canada.

History is written by the winners, and so today those Loyalists are remembered as losers and traitors. They are painted the same despite their reasoning and circumstances. So this 4th of July, as we celebrate our Patriots, ask yourself, what would I have done?