Tag: Tories

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Massachusettensis and Novanglus: The Last Great Debate Prior to the American Revolution

When John Adams returned to Massachusetts after the session of the First Continental Congress, he was surprised to find that there was growing opposition to the radicals and the work of the Congress. It was led by a man who identified himself as “Massachusettensis.” On December 12, 1774 Massachusettensis published the first of a series […]

by James M. Smith
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This Week on Dispatches: Christian M. McBurney on General Charles Lee and the Oath of Allegiance

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author, attorney, and JAR contributor, Christian M. McBurney on the enigmatic General Charles Lee and his role in imposing an oath of allegiance on Newport, Rhode Island, Tories in 1775. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a […]

by Editors
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The Fort Wilson Riot and Pennsylvania’s Republican Formation

“There has been hell to pay in Philadelphia,” exclaimed Samuel Shaw, referring to the Fort Wilson Riot of October 4, 1779 in a letter to Winthrop Sargent.[1] The riot was the culmination of three years of factional political tension within the city of Philadelphia. Members of the city’s “lower sort,” nominally backed by politically powerful men […]

by Kevin Diestelow
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5 Political Characters of Americans

The March 18, 1777 Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia) published an essay by “S.” that classified five political characters of Americans. The article was republished in the April 23 Connecticut Journal (New Haven) and is transcribed below: THE people of America with respect to their political characters may be divided into the five following classes. – 1. […]

by Editors
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The Experience of New London Tories
and Quakers

On December 8, 1776, British soldiers, supported by a large fleet, easily invaded and occupied Newport, Rhode Island, and the rest of Aquidneck Island.  The first commander of the British garrison, Lieutenant General Earl Hugh Percy, immediately turned his attention to British sympathizers, known as Loyalists or Tories, in southeastern New England.  Nestled in Earl […]

by Christian McBurney
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Establishing the Tory Myth

Our understanding of loyalists in the American Revolution is a relic of the eighteenth-century turn from what one might call “constitutional sense” to a more “revolutionary sensibility” in Anglo-American political culture, a shift further reinforced by romantic nineteenth-century writers.[i]  To understand them as they saw themselves unfurls a rather different historical narrative. For most men […]

by Taylor Stoermer