Tories:  Fighting For The King In America’s First Civil War, by Thomas B. Allen

As someone who has ancestors among both Patriots and Tories in the American Revolution, I have long been fascinated by the divide between how Tories are nearly entirely forgotten in American history and how they have become a key part of the Canadian identity as the first English-speaking colonists to be there in large quantities.  Indeed, the fact that Loyalism is such a major part of Canadian identity suggests that its absence from American historiography comes because Loyalists frequently left the United States as it was in the process of becoming independent and having left, their cultural influence and thus the recognition of the division of the American colonies at the eve and during the process of gaining independence has been neglected.  And while I agree with the author that this history is worth recovering, I am not surprised by its neglect.  Those who have departed us and whose perspectives cease to present a check to those who remain cease to become important and valued within a given community.  And in the case of divisive efforts to gain independence it is all too often best to forget the intense divisions within a society that rebellion cause, lest the memory of who picked what side become the source of lasting violence and hostility.

This book is almost 350 pages long and is divided into eighteen chapters.  The book begins with a preface and an introduction that discusses the savage fury of the fight between Loyalists and Patriots.  The author begins with a discussion of the period before the outbreak of conflict where Massachusetts society began to divide in the aftermath of the Stamp Act crisis (1), efforts were made to arm the Tories (2), and some Tories felt the need to either fight or flee (3) the coming trouble in the early 1770’s.  After that the author talks about the aim of the British commanders to subdue the bad elements within American society (4), and engage in the fight for control over Boston (5).  The author details American efforts to conquer Canada (6) and the farewell fleet that departed Boston (7).  After that there is a discussion of efforts to prepare for the inevitable desire to recover imperial authority on the part of the British (8), the call for Loyalist troops (9), and the beginning of the war in New York (10).  There is a discussion of the war of terror fought in the area between New York and Patriot-held upstate New York (11), the involvement of native peoples (12) and the existence of loyalists in the Chesapeake area (13).  The author then discusses the vengeance between sides fought in the valleys of Pennsylvania and the West (14), the British effort to seek southern support (15), and the high water mark of British efforts in the South (16).  The author then closes with a discussion of the Patriot retribution after the departure of Cornwallis’ army from the Carolinas (17) and the defeat of the British at Yorktown and its aftermath (18).

Plenty of Tories fought alongside the British imperial forces during the course of the American Revolution.  This book helps to uncover the way that the British failed to do right by their loyal and harried supporters.  For one, the British had a certain hierarchical view that induced them to look down on Americans in general, whether loyal or not, that was harmful to the self-regard and optimum use of the Loyalist support that existed within the American colonies.  For another, the British troop levels were so low that they were not able to remain a permanent place in the areas their army was able to briefly occupy, leaving the loyalists who remained in the area vulnerable to retribution from patriot forces after the British army inevitably left.  As a result, Loyalists were subject to various loss of rights, property, and even their lives, and eventually had to leave en masse when the British departed, since America ended up winning its independence and had demonstrated a hostility to those who had sought to prevent that end.  If this book is certainly not the only side of the American Revolution one needs to know, it certainly tells a side of the story that few people are aware of to the extent that they should be.  Even the losers of history deserve to have their side of the story preserved for the sake of posterity.