Loyalists (American Revolution)
Ideology | Defunct
1774 CE to 1796 CE
Loyalists are American colonists who remain loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War.
At the time they are often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men.
They are opposed by the Patriots, those who support the revolution and call them "persons inimical to the liberties of America".
Prominent Loyalists repeatedly assure the British government that many thousands of loyalists will spring to arms and fight for the crown.
The British government acts in expectation of this, especially in the southern campaigns in 1780-81.
In practice, the number of loyalists in military service is far lower than expected.
Across the colonies, Patriots watch suspected Loyalists very closely, and will not tolerate any organized Loyalist opposition.
Many outspoken or militarily active loyalists are forced to flee, especially to their stronghold of New York City.
William Franklin, the royal governor of New Jersey and son of Patriot leader Benjamin Franklin after his release from a Patriot prison in 1778 becomes the leader of the Loyalists.
He works to build Loyalist military units to fight in the war, but the number of volunteers is much fewer than London has planned on.
When their cause is defeated, about fifteen percent of the Loyalists (sixty-five thousand to seventy-thousand people) flee to other parts of the British Empire, to Britain itself, or to British North America (now Canada).
The southern colonists move mostly to Florida, which has remained loyal to the Crown, and to British Caribbean possessions, often bringing along their slaves.
Northern Loyalists largely migrate to Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
They call themselves United Empire Loyalists.
Most are compensated with Canadian land or British cash distributed through formal claims procedures.
Exiled Loyalists receive £3 million or about thirty-seven percent of their losses from the British government.
Loyalists who stay in the U.S. are generally able to retain their property and become American citizens.
Historians have estimated that between fifteen and twenty percent of the two million whites in the colonies in 1775 were Loyalists, or about three hundred thousand to four hundred thousand men, women and children.
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The first recorded incident of tarring and feathering in America had occurred in 1766, when Captain William Smith had been tarred, feathered, and dumped into the harbor of Norfolk, Virginia, by a mob that included the town's Mayor.
He had been picked up by a vessel just as his strength was giving out.
He survived, and was later quoted as saying that "...[they] dawbed my body and face all over with tar and afterwards threw feathers on me."
As will be the case with most other tar-and-feathers victims in the following decade, Smith had been suspected of informing on smugglers to the British Customs service.
The punishment had appeared in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1767, when mobs avenged themselves on low-level employees of the Customs service with tar and feathers.
In October 1769, a mob in Boston had attacked a customs service sailor the same way, and a few similar attacks have followed.
John Malcolm, a Bostonian who works for the British customs service, is known as a hard-line Loyalist, a staunch supporter of royal authority.
As a Loyalist, he has often faced abuse and provocation from Boston's Patriots, the critics of British authority.
One such verbal confrontation with Patriot shoemaker George Hewes thrusts Malcolm into the spotlight.
Hewes has often provoked Malcolm by “hooting at him in the streets.” On January 25, 1774, according to the account in the Massachusetts Gazette, Hewes sees Malcolm threatening to strike a boy with his cane.
When Hewes intervenes to stop Malcolm, the two begin insulting each other, after which Malcolm strikes Hewes hard on the forehead with the cane.
After receiving treatment from the well-known Patriot doctor, Joseph Warren, Hewes goes to a magistrate’s office to get a warrant for John Malcolm’s arrest.
That night, a mob seizes Malcolm in his house and drags him into King Street, where, over the objections of Hewes, he is covered with tar and feathers and scalding hot tea poured down his throat.
They then take him to the Liberty Tree, where they first threaten to hang him and then threaten to cut off his ears if he does not apologize for his behavior and renounce his customs commission.
Malcolm relents and is sent home.
The event is reported in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Seeking to prevent the outbreak of war and to keep the peace between the American Patriot (Whig) majority and the Loyalist (Tory) minority, he believes that the best way to accomplish this is by secretly removing military stores from storehouses and arsenals in New England.
The secrecy of these missions is paramount, as Gage fears that leakage of any plans will result in the seizure or concealment of the stores by Patriot sympathizers before his men get there.
There are several places throughout the colonies where the British army has stockpiled supplies.
Some of these places are fortifications that are manned by small garrisons; others are merely locked magazines.
Most of the powder in these is under the control of the provincial government, though some is the property of individual towns.
One locked storehouse near Boston, in what is at this time part of Charlestown, now Powder House Square in Somerville, is controlled by William Brattle, the leader of the provincial militia and an appointee of the governor.
Brattle, who has not obviously sided with either Loyalists or Patriots, notifies Governor Gage in a letter dated August 27 that the provincial ("King's") powder is the only supply remaining in this storehouse, as the towns have removed all of theirs.
Gage decides that this powder has to be brought to Boston for safekeeping.
On August 31, Gage sends Middlesex County sheriff David Phips to Brattle with orders to remove the provincial powder; Brattle turns the key to the powderhouse over to Phips.
Gage also gives orders to ready a force of troops for action the next day, something that does not go unnoticed by the local population.
At some point on this day, General Gage, whether by his intent, accident, or theft by a messenger, loses possession of William Brattle's letter; the widely held story is that it was dropped.
News of its content spreads rapidly, and many consider it to be a warning to Gage to remove the provincial powder before Patriots can seize it.
Rumors fly throughout the day across the countryside about the British troop movements.
The regulars are marching; provincial powder has been seized; war is at hand; people have been killed; Boston is being bombarded by His Majesty's warships.
The alarm spreads as far as Connecticut.
From all over the region, people take up arms and begin streaming toward Boston.
One traveler in Shrewsbury reports that in the space of fifteen minutes, fifty men had gathered, equipped themselves, sent out messengers to surrounding towns, and left for Boston.
He concentrates his troops in Boston, and calls for reinforcements from London, writing "if you think ten thousand men sufficient, send twenty; if one million is thought enough, give two; you save both blood and treasure in the end."
However, Gage's request is seen by some in London as absurd, as there are only twelve thousand troops in Britain at this time, but he will eventually receive an additional four hundred Marines in response to these requests.
He later begins planning and executing seizures again, and he further fortifies the Boston peninsula.
After the Powder Alarm, militia forces throughout New England are more cautious with their supplies and more intent on gaining information about Gage's plans and troop movements.
Paul Revere plays a significant role in distributing this information because of his geographical position in Boston, his social position as a middle-class craftsman in contact with all social classes, and his political position as a well-known Patriot propagandist and organizer.
They also institute the system of express riders and alarms that will prove to be critical at Lexington and Concord.
On December 12, intelligence received by Paul Revere indicates that a seizure of stores at Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth, New Hampshire is imminent.
He rides from Boston to Portsmouth the next day to notify the local Patriots, who quickly raid the fort on the fourteenth and remove its supplies.
Revere's intelligence had been incorrect; although a British operation had been contemplated, it had not been ordered.
The British do send ships carrying troops to Portsmouth, and they arrive three days after the fort's supplies were removed.
The first arrives on the 17th, and is directed into shallows at high tide by a local Patriot pilot, much to the captain's anger.
Cannon and other supplies are smuggled out of Boston and Charlestown.
Besieged and besiegers eventually reach an informal agreement allowing traffic on the Boston Neck, provided no firearms are carried.
Residents of Boston turn in almost two thousand muskets, and most of the Patriot residents leave the city.
Many Loyalists who live outside the city of Boston leave their homes and flee into the city.
Most of them feel that it is not safe to live outside of the city, because the Patriots are now in control of the countryside.
Some of the men, after arriving in Boston, join Loyalist regiments attached to the British army.
However, boats do not arrive until 1:30 am, and they are inadequate to carry the whole force.
Eighty-three of the Green Mountain Boys make the first crossing with Arnold and Allen, and Douglas goes back for the rest.
As dawn approaches, Allen and Arnold become fearful of losing the element of surprise, so they decide to attack with the men at hand.
The only sentry on duty at the south gate flees his post after his musket misfires, and the Americans rush into the fort.
The Patriots now rouse the small number of sleeping troops at gunpoint, and begin confiscating their weapons.
Allen, Arnold, and a few other men charge up the stairs toward the officers' quarters.
Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham, assistant to Captain William Delaplace, is awakened by the noise, and calla to wake the captain.
Stalling for time, Feltham demandato know by what authority the fort wis being entered. Allen, who will later claim that he said it to Captain Delaplace, replied, "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!"
Delaplace finally emerges from his chambers (fully clothed, not with "his breeches in his hand", as Allen will later say) and surrenders his sword.
Nobody is killed in the assault.
The only injury is to one American, Gideon Warren, who had been slightly injured by a sentry with a bayonet.
Eventually, as many as four hundred men arrive at the fort, which they plunder for liquor and other provisions.
Arnold, whose authority is not recognized by the Green Mountain Boys, is unable to stop the plunder.
Frustrated, he retires to the captain's quarters to await forces that he had recruited, reporting to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress that Allen and his men are "governing by whim and caprice" at the fort, and that the plan to strip the fort and send armaments to Boston is in peril.
When Delaplace protests the seizure of his private liquor stores, Allen issues him a receipt for the stores, which he will later submit to Connecticut for payment.
Arnold's disputes with Allen and his unruly men are severe enough that there are times when some of Allen's men draw weapons.