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Learn about Patriots and Loyalists during the Revolutionary War. One side wanted independence while the other wanted to remain part of Britain.

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What happened to the British after the war?

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What happened to the British after the war?

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https://www.npr.org/2015/07/03/419824333/what-happened-to-british-loyalists-after-the-revolutionary-war

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"When one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly."

Letter to Edmund Pendleton | Thursday, January 22, 1795
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"Still I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man."

George Washington to Alexander Hamilton | Thursday, August 28, 1788
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"System in all things is the soul of business. To deliberate maturely, & execute promptly is the way to conduct it to advantage. With me, it has always been a maxim, rather to let my designs appear from...

George Washington to James Anderson | Thursday, December 21, 1797
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"Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country."

Letter to Benedict Arnold | Thursday, September 14, 1775
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"Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action."

Address to Congress resigning his commission | Tuesday, December 23, 1783
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"When one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly." Letter to Edmund Pendleton | Thursday, January 22, 1795 More "Still I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man."

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Reason: No loss of land            It has been proven that the Congress promised any soldier land if they fought in the war

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Reason: No loss of land            It has been proven that the Congress promised any soldier land if they fought in the war

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King George III            "Everyone who does not agree with me is a traitor and a scoundrel."  

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King George III            "Everyone who does not agree with me is a traitor and a scoundrel."  

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Reason: Money                      The King promised money for any soldier who joined the Royal Army.

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Reason: Money                      The King promised money for any soldier who joined the Royal Army.

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“The die is now cast; The colonies must either submit or triumph. We must not retreat"

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“Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.”

― Thomas Jefferson

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become a loyalist, you will get 20 years tax free

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"Give me liberty or give me death!"

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"It is surely worse in this ,that there, in one sense it can never end. an African slave, even when made free, supposing him to be possessed even of talents and virtue, can never, in these colonies be quite on terms of equality with free white me."

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link to information about British unfair laws

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link to information about British unfair laws

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https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/parliamentary-taxation

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link to quotes

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"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature."
~Benjamin Franklin

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" I never think of measures necessary for the peace and good order of the colonies without pain. there must be an abridgment of what they call 'English liberties'. I relieve myself by considering that in a remove from a state of nature to the most perfect state of government there must be a great restraint of natural liberty."

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“Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes,” -Benjamin Franklin

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It's July Fourth weekend - a time that many Americans dedicate to celebrating democracy and the birth of the United States. But more than two centuries ago, when the Revolutionary War ended with an American victory, not everyone was celebrating.

It's estimated that between 15 and 20 percent of the population back then still remained loyal to the British Crown. Naturally, they weren't so thrilled by the climactic British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, which effectively sealed the fate of King George's attempt to keep the colonists in line.

So what became of these loyalists who suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of history? To answer that question, NPR's Rachel Martin spoke with Maya Jasanoff, a professor of history at Harvard University.

Interview Highlights
On what it was like to be a British loyalist during the American revolution
There were definitely instances of people being beaten up on by gangs who would come to their house and harass them for being on the wrong side. It has to be said that some loyalists certainly were able to just kind of lie low and go about their business and try to not say too much about politics. But if you were living on the front lines of these advancing armies going back and forth across the colonies, it could be really a difficult choice and a difficult situation to be in.
On the lives of loyalists after the war
The fighting actually continued, in the backcountry of the South in particular. And it was in regions like that that loyalists still tried to fight for the empire that they believed in. ...

It's a part of the war that we tend to not think too much about or learn about in school. But there was a lot of bloodshed, and particularly in the South. And gangs of revolutionaries, gangs of loyalists, would attack each other, go to each other's plantations. In fact, some of the big battles in the South happened after the surrender at Yorktown.

So, what all of this means is that there was a climate of violence and a climate of fear for many loyalists. And it meant that when the peace negotiations were going on, they were really concerned about what kinds of protections they might have in the new United States. And during this period, many of them felt that the protections that the U.S. was offering were not promises that they could really get behind.

And so, when the British pulled out in city after city in the United States, up to tens of thousands of loyalists sometimes went with the retreating army to Britain and other parts of the British Empire. ... About half of the loyalists who left the United States ended up going north to Canada, settling in the province of Nova Scotia and also becoming pioneering settlers in the province of New Brunswick.
On how history books commemorate the loyalists
On the American side, of course, they're losers. And history is, as we know, written by the winners. So there's not much place for the loyalists - especially the loyalists who left - in standard American history.

But the British also have a kind of complicated relationship to the loyalists. And I think the reason is that the British have a complicated relationship to the Revolutionary War and to the United States, which is a place that they wanted to hold on to and failed to. And the loyalists were, at times, a very uneasy reminder of this defeat.

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What Happened To British Loyalists After The Revolutionary War?

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Not everyone celebrated when the British surrendered at Yorktown. About a fifth of all colonists remained loyal to the Crown; for them, the American victory spelled exodus and, often, more violence.

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"When push comes to shove, i will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love."

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reason:The British and loyalists have a higher chance of winning.

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reason:The British and loyalists have a higher chance of winning.

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our men are more trained, we have better supplies, we have more men.

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“Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families.”

― Benjamin Rush