As author Thomas Allen observes, Americans have selective memories regarding the Revolutionary War. Soon after the war, the victorious rebels began “to forgive—and forget—the Tories. They would call the Revolution a war between Americans and the British, losing from their collective memory the fact that much of the fighting had been between Americans and Americans.” In fact, as Tories’ subtitle indicates, it was a civil war.
Not surprisingly, the attitude of most colonists toward the mother country did not suddenly shift from loyalty to hostility. Even most Patriots initially sought reform rather than independence. During the war, Americans remained sharply divided. (It is well to remember that, if the rebels had lost, which at times seemed likely, we might remember the Loyalists as “Patriots” and the rebels as traitors.)
We shall probably never know the proportions of Americans who supported each side. It appears that only a minority of Americans provided strong support to either Patriots or Tories. Many Americans provided only lukewarm support to one side or the other. Many favored neither side and preferred to remain altogether out of the conflict. Documentary records regarding this issue are very limited. The British may have offered better incentives—land grants to whites, freedom to slaves—to potential soldiers than did the Patriots. To a significant extent, Americans chose to support the side they expected to win; and this varied during the war.
Members of the Anglican Church generally supported the Tories, whereas Presbyterians sided with the Patriots. Those of Scotch ancestry tended to assist the Tories, while those of Scotch-Irish descent joined the Patriots. Hudson Valley aristocrats supported the Patriots, while their tenants sided with the Tories. Sometimes political loyalties seemed to coincide with geography. In some towns, loyalties were sharply divided. But the Tories were so dominant in New York City that Washington wanted to burn down the town. Tories were strong throughout New York state. The state contributed more soldiers to the Loyalists than to the Continental Army. Tories were also strong in some parts of New Jersey. But there were significant exceptions to all these tendencies.
There were divisions, not only between families (the Livingstons were Patriots, the DeLanceys were Tories), but also within families: Ruth, wife of James Otis, whose oratory laid the groundwork for rebellion, was a Tory. One of Otis’ daughters married a British officer, another daughter married a Continental army officer. Benjamin Franklin’s son William remained loyal to the mother country. And there were prominent Patriots who changed sides: Joseph Galloway, a member of second Continental Congress, later served as a government administrator and Superintendent of Police in Philadelphia when it was under British rule. (He was later convicted of treason by the Pennsylvania General Assembly). Benjamin Church, who had been active with the Sons of Liberty, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, and chief physician for Continental Army, later spied for British General Gage. (He was eventually banished from Massachusetts). Of course, there was also the famous case of Benedict Arnold.
The book’s organization is largely chronological, beginning with colonists’ resistance to British policies in the 1760s and 1770s, and moving on to Lexington, Concord, and the various battles of the Revolutionary War, with emphasis on Loyalist involvement in these events. Allen describes the British occupation of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Unlike most histories of the Revolutionary War, he gives little attention to many of the war’s well-known battles, and instead analyzes conflicts on the New York-Canada frontier, the so-called Neutral Ground in New Jersey, and in Georgia and the Carolinas. He describes the recruitment and activities of various Loyalist military units, and the roles of Indians and African Americans in the war.
There were actually two wars—the one we remember, and the ongoing war in the shadows. Allen’s book focuses on the latter. Much of the fighting by both sides was characterized by intimidation, harassment, banishment, confiscation, and various atrocities. After witnessing the war in the South, General Nathanael Greene reported that, “The division among the people is much greater than I imagined and the Whigs [Patriots] and Tories persecute each other, with little less than savage fury. There is nothing but murders, and devastation in every quarter.” Each side tended to deny the legitimacy of the other. In an angry moment, Washington suggested shooting some of the “most notorious” Tories. “This summary punishment inflicted on a few leading traitors will probably strike terror into others and deter them from exposing themselves to a similar fate.”
The book includes an interesting chapter on the fate of Loyalists after the war. Many moved to Canada; and their descendants constitute a significant proportion of modern Canada’s population. For an outstanding discussion of this subject, see
Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
.
Allen has published books about the Revolutionary War (
George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War
), (
Remember Valley Forge: Patriots, Tories, and Redcoats Tell Their Stories
), and on the Civil War (
Mr. Lincoln's High-tech War
), as well as other topics. His research for Tories was extensive, ranging through books, articles, dissertations, and online resources (especially the Online Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies), including general histories, local histories, biographies, monographs on diverse topics, official documents, and published accounts of contemporaries. The depth of his research is reflected in Tories’ 76 pages of footnotes and its 31-page bibliography. The book also includes a good 24-page index.
Although Allen does not elaborate on this question, his book makes one wonder to what extent Americans chose sides on the basis of religious affiliation, geographic location, ethnic identity, and the rewards for enlisting (varying over time according to each side’s prospects for military victory), rather than political ideology or social class. And it is worth remembering that, although the United States gained its independence and gradually outstripped Britain in power and wealth, America continued to provide the former mother country with raw material for its industries, investment opportunities for its capital and soldiers for its major wars, much as it might have done had it remained in the British Empire.
The Declaration of Independence concludes with the memorable statement: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” From Allen’s book, it is clear that, by taking sides, both Patriots and Loyalists risked their lives, fortunes and honor.
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By some counts, about 80,000 Tories left the colonies—proportionally, six times the number of people who fled France during the French Revolution.Highlighted by 52 Kindle readers- Religion remained an issue as colonists took sides in the 1770s, when virtually every Anglican clergyman in America became a Loyalist, and Presbyterians were labeled Rebels.Highlighted by 44 Kindle readers
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