Loyalists (also referred to as Tories, Royalists, or King's Men) were colonists in the Thirteen Colonies of British America who remained loyal to the British crown. Historians have estimated that between 15% and 33% of the population of the colonies were Loyalists. A 2000 researcher suggested between 15% and 20% (300,000 to 400,000) of the 2,000,000 whites in the colonies in 1775 were Loyalists, while approximately half the population avoided involvement and Patriots composed only 40 to 45 percent.Calhoon, "Loyalism and neutrality", p. 235; Middlekauff (2005) pp. 563–564; Thomas B. Allen, Tories: Fighting for the King in America's First Civil War (2010) p. xx The revolutionaries labelled themselves "Patriots" and portrayed Loyalists as "persons inimical to the liberties of America." Self-appointed Patriot committees of correspondence, inspection and safety published lists of suspected Loyalists and, in campaigns of terror, Patriots demonized, harassed, intimidated, burnt-out, dispossessed, raped and murdered those they claimed to be Loyalists to suppress opposition, sometimes based on little more than personal grudges or against business competitors.
The term Loyalist was coined in 1774 when political tensions rose before the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).Norton, Mary Beth. 1774: The Long Year of Revolution. New York: Alfred Knopf 2020, xv Those supporting the revolution self-identified as Patriots or Whigs.
Prominent Loyalists repeatedly assured the British government that many thousands of them would spring to arms and fight for the Crown. The British government acted in expectation of that, especially during the Southern campaigns of 1780 and 1781. However, Britain was able to protect the people only in areas where they had military control. Thus, the number of military Loyalists was significantly lower than what had been expected. Loyalist troops were often viewed with suspicion by British officers, who did not know whom they could fully trust in such a conflicted situation.
Patriots watched suspected Loyalists very closely and would not tolerate organized Loyalist opposition. Many outspoken or militarily active Loyalists were forced to flee, especially to their stronghold of New York City. William Franklin, the colonial governor of New Jersey and son of Patriot leader Benjamin Franklin, became the leader of the Loyalists after his release from a Patriot prison in 1778. He worked to build Loyalist military units to fight in the war. In 1901, Woodrow Wilson wrote: there had been no less than twenty-five thousand loyalists enlisted in the British service during the five years of the fighting. At one time (1779) they had actually outnumbered the whole of the continental muster under the personal command of Washington.Woodrow Wilson. The Coming of Peace, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 104, December 1901, p. 110.When their cause was defeated, about 15% of the Loyalists (65,000–70,000 people) fled to other parts of the British Empire; especially to the Kingdom of Great Britain or to British North America and became known as United Empire Loyalists.G. Patrick O'Brien. Refugees after the American Revolution needed money, homes and acceptance , The Conversation, August 31, 2021 Most were compensated with Canadian land or British cash distributed through formal claims procedures. The southern Loyalists moved mostly to East or West Florida or to British Caribbean possessions. Loyalists who left the US received over £3million, or about 37% of their losses, from the British government. Loyalists who stayed in the US were generally able to retain their property and become American citizens. Many Loyalists eventually returned to the US after the war and after oppressive and discriminatory laws had been repealed.
Background
The American War of Independence began as a revolt, became a revolution and civil war and eventually a wider global conflict when Patriots allied with former enemies, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic.Brands, H.W. Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution. New York: Anchor Books 2021Jassanoff, Maya, Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in Revolutionary Era, chap. 1, "Civil War". New York: Vintage Books 2012 Families were often divided during the conflict, most famously Founding Father Benjamin Franklin and his son William Franklin, the last royal governor of New Jersey. Many felt themselves to be both American and British, still owing loyalty to the mother country. Maryland lawyer Daniel Dulany the Younger opposed taxation without representation but would not break his oath to the king or take up arms against him. He wrote: "There may be a time when redress may not be obtained. Till then, I shall recommend a legal, orderly, and prudent resentment".Andrews, p. 284 Most Americans hoped for a peaceful reconciliation but were forced to choose sides by the Patriots who took control nearly everywhere in the Thirteen Colonies in 1775–76.Jassanoff, ch 1
Motives for loyalism
In 1948, Yale historian Leonard Woods Larabee identified eight characteristics of the Loyalists that made them essentially conservative and loyal to the king and to Britain:Leonard Woods Larabee, Conservatism in Early American History (Cornell UP, 1948) pp 164–165 online. They were older, better established, and resisted radical change. They felt that rebellion against the Crown—the legitimate government—was morally wrong. They saw themselves as "British born in the colonies" loyal to the British Empire and saw a rebellion against the metropole (Great Britain) as a betrayal of the empire. At the time, the national identity of the Americans was still in formation, and the very idea of two separate peoples (nationalities) with their own sovereign states (the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America) was itself revolutionary. Eventually and gradually, as the war progressed and it became clear that the United States and Great Britain would become two separate countries, the Loyalists who remained in the United States adopted the national identity of Americans. They felt alienated when the Patriots (seen by them as separatists who rebelled against the Crown) resorted to violence, such as burning down houses and tarring and feathering. They had a moderate position but were driven to support the Crown by Patriot violence. They had business and family links with Britain, and being a part of the British Empire was crucial in terms of commerce and their business operations. They felt that independence (or at least home rule) would come in due time, but wanted it to be by a consensual process. They were wary that chaos, corruption, and mob rule would come about as a result of revolution. Some were "pessimists" who did not display the same belief in the future that the Patriots did. Others, believing the Patriot cause doomed, recalled the experiences of the Jacobites after the failure of their 1715 and 1745 rebellions, who often had their lands confiscated by the Hanoverian government.See also N. E. H. Hull, Peter C. Hoffer and Steven L. Allen, "Choosing Sides: A Quantitative Study of the Personality Determinants of Loyalist and Revolutionary Political Affiliation in New York," Journal of American History, (1978) 65#2 pp. 344–366 in JSTOR Edwin G. Burrows and Michael Wallace, "The American Revolution: The Ideology and Psychology of National Liberation," Perspectives in American History, (1972) vol. 6 pp 167–306Mark Jodoin. Shadow Soldiers of the American Revolution: Loyalist Tales from New York to Canada. 2009. . The History Press, Charleston, SC.
Other motives of the Loyalists included: They believed in Parliamentary sovereignty and the need for a stable legal order.Hull, Hoffer and Allen, Choosing Sides (1978), p. 352 In New York, powerful families had assembled colony-wide coalitions of supporters; the de Lancey family (of Huguenot and New York Dutch ancestry) formed De Lancey's Brigade with support from its associates.Hull, Hoffer and Allen, Choosing Sides (1978), pp. 347, 354, 365 They felt weak or threatened within American society and in need of an outside defender such as the British Crown and Parliament. Black Loyalists were promised freedom from slavery by both the Patriots and the British.
Both sides of the American Revolution also enlisted ex-slaves on promises of freedom and land upon success. These became known as the Black Loyalists, and most ended up after the Revolution in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone. During the Revolution, both the Earl of Dunmore and Governor Patrick Tonyn had issued proclamations offering freedom, guaranteed refuge and a plot of land to escaped slaves for their wartime services. (See Dunmore's Proclamation and the Philipsburg Proclamation)
Demographics Historian Robert Calhoon wrote in 2000, concerning the proportion of Loyalists to Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies:
Before Calhoon's work, estimates of the Loyalist share of the population were somewhat higher, at about one-third, but these estimates are now rejected as too high by most scholars.John Adams has sometimes been cited as having claimed, in an 1813 letter, that one-third of Americans supported the revolution and one-third were against. However, the passage in question actually refers to the French Revolution of 1789. See also "Only 1/3 of Americans Supported the American Revolution?" , by William Marina. Jun 28, 2004. Retrieved on July 14, 2008. In 1968, historian Paul H. Smith estimated there were about 400,000 Loyalists, or 16% of the white population of 2.25 million in 1780.Paul H. Smith, "The American Loyalists: Notes on Their Organization and Numerical Strength," William and Mary Quarterly (1968) 25#2 pp. 259–277 in JSTOR
Historian Robert Middlekauff summarizes scholarly research on the nature of Loyalist support as follows:
The largest number of loyalists were found in the middle colonies: many tenant farmers of New York supported the king, for example, as did many of the Dutch in the colony and in New Jersey. The Germans in Pennsylvania tried to stay out of the Revolution, just as many Quakers did, and when that failed, clung to the familiar connection rather than embrace the new. Highland Scots in the Carolinas, a fair number of Anglican clergy and their parishioners in Connecticut and New York, a few Presbyterians in the southern colonies, and a large number of the Iroquois stayed loyal to the king.Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (1985) p. 550.
After the British military capture of New York City and Long Island it became the British military and political base of operations in North America from 1776 to 1783, prompting revolutionaries to flee and resulting in a large concentration of Loyalists, many of whom were refugees from other states.Calhoon (1973)
According to Calhoon, Loyalists tended to be older and wealthier, but there were also many Loyalists of humble means. Many active Church of England members became Loyalists. Some recent arrivals from Britain, especially those from Scotland, had a high Loyalist proportion. Loyalists in the southern colonies were suppressed by the local Patriots, who controlled local and state government. Many people—including former Regulators in North Carolina—refused to join the rebellion, as they had earlier protested against corruption by local authorities who later became Revolutionary leaders. The oppression by the local Whigs during the Regulation led to many of the residents of backcountry North Carolina sitting out the Revolution or siding with the Loyalists.