The Other Loyalists: Ordinary People, Royalism, and the Revolution in the Middle Colonies, 1763-1787

In The Other Loyalists we meet for the first time the ordinary people of the Middle Colonies who remained loyal to Britain during the American Revolution. The first important new scholarship in decades, these essays uncover the reasons why middle- and lower-class citizens chose to become Loyalists, how they participated in and endured the Revolution, and what happened to them because of their defeat. In unprecedented clarity we are allowed to see the tragedy, violence, and suffering of places such as the lower Delaware and Hudson valleys, the Delmarva Peninsula, western Pennsylvania, and northern Virginia. This book fills an important void in our understanding of the American Revolution, reminding us that not all Loyalists were members of the elite and that their motivations were a complicated medley of political beliefs, religious convictions, and self-interest.