In a period where we in Canada and the Commonwealth as a whole are questioning the ongoing legacy of the British connection, there is one unique group of people in our country still bound to uphold the traditions of loyalty defined by our border at the 49th Parallel. Despite preconceived notions, Loyalists lost the most of any group during the American Revolutionary War. They were not only displaced; but often had their possessions and land seized from them, while enduring painful public humiliations. The “free land” some received came with a price of blood and sweat that would endure for generations.
Like many historical groups, those of Loyalist descent (who use the designation of UE following their surname) are becoming fewer with every passing generation, as their place in North American history also dwindles from the public consciousness. It would be a tragedy to forget the contributions of a people whose decisions defined the creation of three of the world’s greatest nations. Their descendants walk among us and continue to uphold traditions of loyalty which formed Ontario’s motto, “Loyal she began, loyal she remains.”
It is the modern day mission of Loyalists to spread unity of the Commonwealth, the great principle and virtue for which the initials “UE” allude. They are honoured representatives of a grand relationship that has spanned centuries and continents, linking many people together for a common purpose.
Who Were the Loyalists?
A capital “L” Loyalist is by definition the persons (and descendants of persons) living in what was in 1776 the Thirteen Colonies, who chose to side with the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War. This group included people of varying ethnicities (unlike the stereotypes often associated with UEs) who remained loyal to and fought for King George.
These groups comprised about 70 000 people (over half of which were not British), including large numbers of German settlers, Jewish, black, other European ethnicities, and Indigenous groups. The famous Chief Joseph Brant of the Six Nations fought for the Crown, uprooting his people from Upper New York State to the Valley of the Grand River, on which modern Brantford sits.
Settlers were given the choice of either settling in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or what was then called Quebec (but would later become parts of Ontario). In Nova Scotia, 1200 black settlers founded what came to be known as Birchtown (after Brigadier-General Samuel Birch, who had befriended black Loyalist units in New York), across the bay from Shelburne, NB, which then became the largest exclusively free black settlement at the time outside of Africa.
Despite the retellings of popular history, the uprisings in the Colonies were not huge in terms of numbers. Only a minority of rebels (or patriots depending on one’s point of view) favoured revolution. Indeed, the War of Independence is sometimes referred to as America’s first Civil War by historians.
Loyalists came from every colony, but more came from the middle colonies (New York, Pennsylvania) than New England, and were from all segments of society and socio-economic groups.
In the North, those affiliated with the Anglican Church were more likely to support the British, as well as other religious groups that were fundamentally opposed to war and violence, like the Quakers and the Amish, whose beliefs precluded them from taking part in the demands of the Revolutionaries.
It is important to note that the essential politics between Loyalists and revolutionaries differed on one point only: Loyalists believed, perhaps optimistically in some cases, that British institutions would secure their property rights as opposed to the unpredictable mob rule of the revolutionaries. However, both groups believed in the essential tenets of British political practice; representative government, individual liberty, and the protection of private property. In essence, Loyalists hedged their bets with Crown rule rather than an unstable and newly formed experiment in government.
War in the Colonies
Naturally, with what was only a minority of die-hard rebels against the might of the British Empire, fortune favoured the Crown. The British government felt they could rely on the support not only one of the largest standing armies in the world but also on significant numbers of British North Americans to support the Monarchy. It was believed to be a certainty that the British army would without a doubt break the rebel base in the Colonies, and then reorganize society based around the Loyalists who would then be in charge of policing their home terrain and assume control.
This seemed a safe assumption as the rebel army had neither the numbers to attack Quebec nor the sea power to threaten Nova Scotia. Instead, guerrilla-style skirmishes took place along the Appalachians, where Loyalist units, including their Iroquois allies, fought frontier farmers in New York and Pennsylvania. Heavy losses were suffered on both sides, and the Iroquois were driven from their homes, becoming refugees at Fort Niagara. This in turn led to Fort Niagara becoming the bloody battleground for Loyalists and Mohawk raids along the American frontier.
In addition to the Niagara region, there were many Loyalists from the southern Colonies who took up arms, conquering Savannah and retaking Georgia for the British. However, victory was fleeting. After British troops were dispersed to protect loyal subjects, American rebel guerilla attacks grew in number with increasing success. In the Southern Colonies, the British were forced back to the seaside towns of Savannah and Charleston, while the rebels working with French troops dealt a fatal blow to the British at Yorktown, Virginia.
Thereafter, Charleston, Savannah, and New York became gathering points for Loyalist refugees who then made their way North, later either settling in British North America, the West Indies or returning to Great Britain. Of the estimated 70 000 Loyalists, 40 000 eventually settled in what would one day become Canada.
Numbers and Violence
While numbers are impossible to know with certainty and are always disputed among experts, it is estimated that 10-15% (or about 250 000 people living in the Colonies) were either actively or passively opposed to the revolutionary cause, choosing not only to move to North to what became Canada but also deciding to defend the monarchy by fighting or spying on the rebels. John Adams, one of the leaders of the Revolution and later the third President of the United States, estimated in his 1815 memoirs that one-third of the colonial population remained loyal to the Crown, with a further third remaining undecided.
Being declared a Loyalist (or a traitor, again, depending on one’s point of view), was a risky venture. Both Loyalists and those refusing to declare a stance on the Revolution were often victims of (at the least) public humiliation, if not mob violence in rebel hands. One could not take a neutral stance.
Tactics intended to teach the traitors the error of their ways included tar and feathering and then being displayed naked on a wagon that was then paraded for all to see. Some were stripped of their property and goods and then banished under the threat of death.
In general, those who did not declare in favour of the Revolution were barred from voting, selling land, suing debtors, or working as doctors, lawyers, or teachers. Even before the war, as early as 1775, “Communities for Safety”, or vigilante mob groups, would harass residents, who then began to leave their communities.
First Settlement
United Empire Loyalists began settling the Maritimes as soon as 1776, creating both Saint John and Prince Edward Island in a petition to the British government to separate them from Halifax. This also later resulted in the creation of the province of New Brunswick in 1784, around the new community of Loyalists in Saint John. In one year alone (1783), Saint John constructed 1500 dwellings, and more across the Bay of Fundy in Shelbourne.
An estimated 7000 to 9000 others, including disbanded Loyalist regiments, later migrated to Quebec, in effect creating present-day Ontario. Initially, the land was granted along the St. Lawrence River, upstream from Montreal and North of Lake Ontario (and hence in “Upper Canada”- ie. up river), parceled out to heads of household according to military rank, and then extended to wives and children. Even today, the names of Loyalist families permeate these areas of Eastern Ontario.
The Final Migration
After a surprising victory in favour of the rebels (aided by Spain, The Netherlands, and the French King Louis XVI, who then ironically lost his hold on power, and his head, in a similar revolution inspired and provoked partially by bankrupting the French state to help the American colonials), the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 that officially recognized the United States of America as a sovereign nation.
Representing the United States in Paris were Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, among others. Ironically, Benjamin Franklin’s son would choose to side with the British and he became a Loyalist. The treaty was drafted on November 30, 1782, and signed at the Hôtel d’York (at present 56 Rue Jacob) in Paris on September 3, 1783.
Although the designated boundaries would move over subsequent years, this was the impetus for the final migration of Loyalist citizens to British North America. The signing of this Treaty was a major blow to some Loyalists and caused huge upset, as the ceding of land to the newly created United States was very generous to facilitate future trade among the world powers, and included American fishing rights in Canadian waters.
The Preamble declares the treaty to be “in the Name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity” (followed by a reference to the Divine Providence) states the bona fides of the signatories, and declares the intention of both parties to “forget all past misunderstandings and differences” and “secure to both perpetual peace and harmony”. Certain stipulations of the Treaty included the return of land and goods to Loyalists and the payment of debts on both sides.
Articles Five and Six stipulate the following concerning Loyalists:
- The Congress of Confederation will “earnestly recommend” to state legislatures to recognize the rightful owners of all confiscated lands and “provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to British subjects” (Loyalists);
- The United States will prevent future confiscations of the property of Loyalists.
Finally, with the passage of the Canada Act in 1791, Quebec was formally divided into Upper and Lower Canada, with separate seigneurial (French) and British land tenure systems, where the separate laws and governments could be maintained following terms at the end of the Seven Years War (known as the French and Indian War in the U.S., 1756-1763). In Ontario, Governor Simcoe then created 19 counties, and recognizing Ontario’s direct Loyalist origins, the province’s motto became “Loyal she began, loyal she remains.”
Aftermath
Thanks largely in part to the interference of the French, in addition to small support from other British imperial rivals The Netherlands and Spain, the British suffered an enormous loss after losing what then became known as the American Revolutionary War. The colonies that remained to them in Quebec, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia were at the time perceived to be less valuable to the Empire, though easy to maintain with relative self-governance.
However, losses could have been worse, as Americans had little ability to challenge the British navy along the Atlantic Coast, other than small raids or plundering individual merchant ships. Great Britain was able to protect its Atlantic maritime holdings, somewhat precariously, in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Quebec. The still untamed wilderness was a further barrier to the invasion of the main areas of settlement to the North.
Quebec (which at that time also included what would become Ontario) and Nova Scotia were the main recipients of Loyalist refugees, and the Rebellion had shaken British views on how subjects in their colonies could and should be treated, including an earlier repeal of taxation laws that had indirectly led to the Revolutionary War with incidents such as the Boston Tea Party.
At the peace talks in Paris, boundaries were drawn up with extremely favourable terms to the new United States of America, as the world powers sought to get off on the right foot concerning future trade. This enraged many Loyalists who felt they had been sold out by their masters after giving everything to the cause. Indigenous peoples were not represented at all during peace talks and had their territory parcelled out without their knowledge or consent.
Lieutenant Governor and Colonel John Graves Simcoe, who had headed a Loyalist regiment and would later govern Upper Canada, was extremely bitter towards Americans after the experiences of both himself and his men during the war. He later relied almost exclusively on Loyalist veterans to staff his administration and had British troops build the necessary infrastructure for the 20 000 person colony under his command at the new British capital, York (later renamed Toronto), which then spread to towns he named London and King’s Town (later abbreviated to Kingston). Settlements of Loyalists and new British settlers spread out evenly along the St. Lawrence and north of Lake Ontario as far west as the Detroit River.
Simcoe also took responsibility for all aspects of the restructuring and governing of Upper Canada. This included land surveys and settlement patterns, which saw many Loyalists of varying rank given land parcels that they were then responsible for clearing and developing.
Issues of what constituted “loyalty” remained under debate long after the end of the war. Elites used the backgrounds of “ex-Americans” as an opportunity to exclude certain groups from public office while maintaining an officious loyalty to the Crown. This caused tension in pre-Canadian society, where possibly half the population of Upper Canada could potentially be discriminated against, if not completely disenfranchised, for having American backgrounds.
In 1837, a Toronto lady wrote, “[The] very first elements out of which our social system was framed was repugnance and contempt for the new institutions of the United States and a dislike to the people of that country.” It may not be far off to say that Canadian attitudes towards Americans may not have changed that much in the subsequent 200 some-odd years.
Similar to Simcoe, many Loyalists were deeply unhappy with the outcome of the Revolutionary War. They blamed their American counterparts and what they perceived to be incompetent British generals equally, and some measure of skepticism of British interests remained after the Treaty of Paris. Loyal up until a point, they now looked to the British government for proper compensation and true recompense for all their losses.
Loyalists and their Descendants
In 1789, perhaps not coincidentally the year of the outbreak of the bloody Revolution in France, the Governor of Quebec, Lord Dorchestor, honoured Loyalist families by stating that they may put the initials U.E. after their surnames. This can still occasionally be seen today:
N. B. Those Loyalists who have adhered to the Unity of the Empire, and joined the Royal Standard before the Treaty of Seperation in the year 1783, and all their Children and Descendants by either sex, are to be distinguished by the following Capitals, affixed to their names: U.E. Alluding to their great principle of Unity to the Empire.
The vast majority of UEL land grant recipients during the period of European westward expansion and settlement was indeed given to the children of confirmed Loyalists, as grants were extended to born and unborn children. Heavily Loyalist populated areas remain today, such as areas like Haldimand, Ernestown, Fredericksburgh, Niagara, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. These grants took place between 1816 and the late 1830s, in some cases with several family members obtaining separate grants, resulting in these heavily Loyalist-populated communities.
However, the keeping and maintaining of these land grants were not easy for the early settlers. Some never came to claim their land at all, and those that did had eighteen months to clear five acres for every 100 acres granted, while also building a sixteen by twenty-foot dwelling, in addition to clearing half the road in the front and rear of the lot.
Mishaps and tragedies prevented some families from fulfilling these obligations or being able to afford the fees for a land patent from the Crown to register their documents. So, despite the land being “free”, the stipulations of the grants meant that all settlers paid in sweat and blood, in addition to shelling out cash for the bureaucratic process involved.
Black Loyalists: The Darker Side of Loyalist History
During the American Revolution, 2000 slaves escaped bondage and rebel slaveholders by siding with the British, in exchange for their freedom. The actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a proud descendent through his father’s side of black Nova Scotian Loyalists. Although it would still be thirty years before the British Empire stopped the practice of the slave trade (1807), these early Canadians, made famous by Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes, looked forward to a better life by supporting the British.
As Hill chronicles in his epic novel, many black Loyalists were left ultimately free but still disenfranchised, with a murky status regarding voting and property-holding rights, and the inherent racism still prevalent in British colonies, which would continue with the slave trade for another 30 years.
Twelve hundred black settlers originally settled in the form of slaves of Loyalists who had no choice but to follow their masters in resettlement. With some households holding as many as 20 slaves, slave auctions were routine in British North America (apart from one Quaker community in Beaver Harbour, NB, which prohibited the practice) until the last recorded sale took place in New Brunswick in 1787.
After this date, it appears masters were adopting the principle of paying wages (however small) and the slave trade in British colonies slowly disappeared until it was outlawed by Parliament with the Emancipation Act in 1834.
As Lawrence Hill alludes to in The Book of Negroes, it was also not uncommon for freed blacks to be kidnapped and sold back into slavery, in addition to suffering a double standard of justice whereby they were punished more harshly than whites for similar crimes.
Although the British and Sir Guy Carleton, the Commander sent to New York to evacuate Loyalists, made good on British promises to protect black Loyalists (former slaves) and point blank refused to return them when requested to by his opponent George Washington (himself a slaveholder), promises of land for black Loyalists took a different form once they arrived in Nova Scotia.
Instead of land grants in Nova Scotia, most black Loyalists were promised a new free colony in Sierra Leone, West Africa, which was a largely disastrous attempt to resettle black Loyalists in their “native” soil when disenchanted former Loyalists felt their prospects were restricted in the Maritimes.
Although leaders such as Loyalist Stephen Burke tried to prevent the government from allowing such a fool-hardy undertaking, nearly 1200 black Loyalists were convinced they would have better luck in an ancestral homeland of which they had no first-hand experience of survival.
For many more black Loyalists who stayed, however, British promises also rang hollow. The same treatment had been promised to all Loyalists regardless of colour or creed, but in practice, the majority of black Loyalists received no land, and the few who did were gifted smaller plots on less arable soil.
While whites received an average of 74 acres of farmland, blacks received 34, as well as only a fraction of the three-year provisions of food and tools to establish themselves. As a result, black populations slid into chronic and circular poverty.
When the settlement in Shelbourne failed to succeed like Saint John across the Bay of Fundy, black unemployment became a serious issue, leading to race riots in 1784. Disbanded white Loyalist units attempted to drive out the black population of Birchtown, and a bitter winter caused a famine four years later that further impacted the black population.
In response to the race riots of 1784, the newly formed government of New Brunswick announced that blacks were to form themselves into companies, each of which would receive 50 acres near Saint John, and additional land when they could develop it in order to alleviate the problems of overcrowding and poverty. Whites received no such commands and were left to continue in Saint John as before.
Black Loyalists faced all the same challenges as their white counterparts, but their burdens were compounded by lack of resources and experience, resulting in gravitation towards towns where they could find employment as labourers and servants for whites.
To add to the struggles of black Loyalists, the vacuum in society left by the trek to Sierra Leone (year) meant that a large part of the existing community was decimated in the Maritimes. In the ensuing centuries, black Maritimers and Loyalist descendants have struggled to seek out an existence without the fair treatment and equality that had been promised them by the British, resulting in socio-economic struggles that continue to this day.
The Franklins: How Family Dysfunction Influenced Global Politics and the Exile of 100, 000 Loyalists
Although Benjamin Franklin is touted by the Americans as one of the Founding Fathers, as well as realizing the importance of electricity among other accomplishments, he also had his faults as a man and as a father. Decidedly and dogmatically anti-British and anti-Loyalist, Franklin was single-handedly responsible for needlessly prolonging talks at the Treaty of Paris peace conference over the Loyalist issue and ensuring that the essential tenets of the Treaty ensuring Loyalist reparations would never be fulfilled.
Before being put in charge of the talks, Franklin had spent years as the Revolutionary diplomatic envoy to France. A position he greatly enjoyed and enjoyed with the company of many French women. One of these women, a chambermaid, produced a son named William. William was then raised by Franklin and his common-law wife, Deborah Reed.
William was acknowledged by his father despite his bastard status as Franklin’s only son and was included in Franklin’s political and scientific endeavours. For a time, William even became Royal Governor of New Jersey to earn his father’s approval, although this could not change his illegitimate status. He gained this position through more than a little nepotism, although he did perform well at his post.
However, the good relationship between father and son changed when Benjamin and William diverged on the issue of loyalty to the Empire. Both considered the other a traitor, and Benjamin felt a stab in the back by his progeny’s unwillingness to give up King and Country for his father’s revolutionary views.
This could not simply remain a difference of opinion and a private family matter and resulted in a permanent rift in the relationship. Thus, Benjamin Franklin came to hate all Loyalists with undue passion and was not shy about using his influence to punish them after the end of the war.
Initially, Franklin had believed an open war in the Colonies could be avoided by his intervention as the Colonial Observer in British Parliament. However, history has shown us otherwise, and at the age of 70, Franklin’s resentment of the Loyalists became more than clear when he was sent with Adams and other delegates to hammer out the peace agreement ending the War of Independence.
Franklin enjoys an almost cartoonish image as a wonderful eccentric genius, who no one would guess would have a vindictive streak against an entire sub-population of people, but they would be wrong. During negotiations, he put his fellow delegates in a very awkward position by refusing to compromise on Article V of the Treaty. Which concerned the treatment of Loyalists and the return of their property.
Article V states: It is agreed that Congress shall earnestly recommend it to the legislatures of the respective states to provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to real British subjects; and also of the estates, rights, and properties of persons resident in districts in the possession of his Majesties’ arms and who have not borne arms against said United States.
Seems simple enough after the official cessation of hostilities, and was interpreted by Loyalists and the British as a fulfillment of King George III’s promise to protect them. Subsequently, Franklin halted negotiations on this sticking point, while successfully blocking the Crown’s good intentions with deceit, subterfuge, and the dependence on the remaining hostilities harboured by the new citizens of the United States of America against their British neighbours.
The article itself was introduced by Franklin but included clever wording that turned “forgiveness” over to the individual state, thus absolving the Federal government of any responsibilities. Also the term “earnestly recommend” was intended to have no teeth when it came to enforcing these good intentions with American citizens in these individual legislatures, not under federal jurisdiction. Finally, “real British subjects” was wording meant to be interpreted one way and one way only by Congress: Traitors and not Loyalists.
Fellow delegates became so annoyed with Franklin’s obstinacy on this subject that even George Washington, the hardest liner of all against the “rebels”, eager to wrap up negotiations, forced Franklin to tie up the loose ends with more accommodating language.
However, Franklin made it his mission thereafter to ensure that any serious attempts of Congress to normalize relations with Loyalists would force him to insist on British reparations to Americans, which would again lead to open war with the British. He was in effect calling the British on their bluff to keep their promises to the Loyalists while governing across the Atlantic.
As designed, this aggravated the problems Loyalists had with receiving assistance for resettlement from the British as well as the promised full restitution, and as his goal was to sow seeds of resentment between the Loyalists and the British, in this he succeeded. Any attempts at full restitution would be inevitably doomed to failure, as the British had no means to enforce the compliance of individual Americans in terms of the return of property, land, and the payment of debts from before the war.
Why was Franklin so hell-bent on punishing the Loyalists? The answer lies with the man himself. In his own words, “nothing has ever hurt me so much and affected me with such keen Sensations as to find myself deserted in my old Age by my only Son, and not only deserted, but to find him taking up arms against me, in a Cause wherein my good Fame, Fortune, and Life were all at stake.” Dying at age 84, the elder Franklin had cut William out of his will entirely, except, pointedly, for giving him the land he owned in Nova Scotia.
In the case of the Franklin family, although hardly unique to the times, divided loyalties caused insurmountable rifts resulting in Franklin taking out his personal hurts and airing his dirty laundry on a global scale, to the suffering of the Loyalist population.
Conclusion
All things considered, United Empire Loyalists leave an admirable legacy in displaying the very best of the qualities of the British Commonwealth. For centuries, these central values have reinforced the bond between many nations, even as Canada has since gained her independence from the United Kingdom.
This tradition of loyalty to Mother Britain has remained in many forms, from portraits of the Queen on the backs of Canadian coins to the unquestioning answer to the call of both World Wars. These are only two examples, but Canadian history is rife with an essential quality of steadfast consistency and stalwart dependence established as early as 1775.
Today, Loyalists have been largely forgotten by history, but are still recognized by Eastern Canada and the British Royal Family itself, which still pays homage to the descendants of those who fought to create what would one day become the second-largest country in the world. Those of Loyalist descent are proud of their contributions, personified by our leader Justin Trudeau, who is himself a UE.
At this moment in global politics, the values of the UEs such as, foremost, loyalty, but also consideration of heritage and long-standing commitment to the call of Queen and Country, are important for maintaining unity in the Commonwealth, but also in Canada, which is becoming an increasingly polarized society.
As well as being an extremely important part of North American history that not only played a part in the formation of three great nations, all of which rank in the top countries in the world and form part of the G7, Loyalists are partially responsible for the creation of several provinces, as well as the development and settlement of what would become Canada from the Bay of Fundy to the Detroit River.
Their blood and sweat partially made Canada, as they hacked it out in the wilderness, burying their children along the way. The map of the world, and that of world history, would be very different, if not for the existence of those “loyal who became, loyal who remain.”