Approximately one-fifth of Americans supported Britain during the American Revolution. Although their exact numbers are uncertain due to the inherent difficulty in determining who qualified as a "Loyalist,” also sometimes referred to as a “Tory." Overt Loyalists are easier for historians to track. These Loyalists expressed their political dissent in some unambiguous manner, writing letters in support of Parliamentary action, spying on their rebel neighbors, defying the non-importation agreements, or fighting in the king’s forces. However, many other colonists disapproved of the Patriot protests, or opposed American independence, but were quieter in their opposition.
Aside from Crown officials, who did generally side with what they called the "friends of government," there was not a common determinant for who ended up on the Loyalist side. The Loyalists came from every social class in colonial society, every occupation, and every region on the continent. Loyalist individuals were inspired to action or inaction by a variety of motives, some of which had to do with ideological concerns. Crown officials might have become Loyalists because their careers were dependent on royal patronage. Other Loyalists, particularly individuals who had run afoul of patriot mobs, may well have been fearful of "mob rule"—a legitimate fear in an era of limited coercive government control.
Many ordinary citizens, inclined to neutrality, were reluctantly forced to choose between the two sides by unfolding events. The Patriots' use of non-importation agreements and loyalty oaths in the late 1760s and 1770s pushed many neutrals into active opposition. During the military conflict, the occupation of territory also put pressure on the inhabitants to choose a side, as those who remained neutral tended to be harassed by both armies. At times the Patriots exercised caution in determining who was a patriot and who was a Loyalist, while encamped in New York, George Washington received a warning, “But as we have had many Instances of persons who have assumed the Character of Friends that they might have Oppertunity the more effectually to act the part of Enemies.”1 Both Loyalist and Patriots feared espionage being used against them by who they believed to be local allies or neutral residents.
Beyond just suspicion, some soldiers navigated personal risks and goals to switch allegiances during the war. Most dramatically, attention was brought to individuals like Benedict Arnold, who joined the British after providing them key details about the Continental Army. But everyday people, also absconded to the British, including James Wilson a member of the Connecticut militia described as a “notorious traitor.”2 The British aimed to garner local support throughout the conflict. In the final years of the war, the British turned their attention to the Southern colonies, hoping to find Loyalist support there. However, the demands of the war alienated many people from being Loyalists.
Personal decisions possibly influenced one’s views on imperial policies. A significant number of pacifist Pennsylvania Quakers were forced into the Loyalist camp by Patriot demands for military service, even though their political views were often neutral or even sympathetic to the rebels’ cause. Some decisions were driven primarily by economic concerns. Tenants in upstate New York, crushed by high wartime taxes and high rents imposed by Patriot landlords, staged insurrections that coincided with the British invasion of the area for extremely local reasons.
Regardless of motive, political differences strained long-standing social networks, economic relationships, friendships, and families. However, some relationships survived. Washington’s friend, Lord Fairfax, and other members of the Fairfax family remained loyal to the crown, but they remained in correspondence about local and personal matters during the war.3 Additionally, throughout the war, many Loyalist officers were paroled to their homes, and lived within their communities and areas of Patriot occupation without being further condemned or punished for their participation in the British military.4
Other factors such as discrimination and freedom status brought individuals to identify as Loyalist and support the British cause. In New England, recent Scottish immigrants faced considerable prejudice from the largely Anglo populace. This tended to make them less sympathetic to anti-British demonstrations led by many of their old antagonists. Finally, British promises of freedom in exchange for military service through Dunmore’s Proclamation influenced enslaved people to escape to British lines and offer their service. Seventeen people enslaved by Washington fled from Mount Vernon to the H.M.S. Savage for their freedom.
Diplomatic concerns also factored into who supported the British. While France supported the Patriot cause for many reasons, including geopolitical ones, others saw siding with the British as a preferable diplomatic decision. Many Native American groups, including five of the six Nations of the Iroquois, joined the British side because they believed British government would be more likely to honor their land claims than an independent United States. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, colonists violated the Proclamation Line of 1763, encroaching onto the territorial claims or areas of control of Indigenous nations. After Patriot victory, British and American Indigenous allies did not get to represent their interests in treaty negotiations after the war at the Treaty of Paris.
The British loss of the American Revolution meant that many Loyalists would never return to America. Between 60,000 and 80,000 Americans left the country by 1783. Around 7500 of them settled in Great Britain, while others made homes in the Caribbean, Spanish Florida, or Canada, or alternatively attempted to return to the United States. Most Loyalists faced considerable hardship in their new homes. Although Parliament attempted to recompense them for their losses, many suffered from poverty as their property was damaged or confiscated during and after the war. Most tragic was the fate of the thousands of Black Loyalists. Most faced disease or poverty in Canada or England, or were resold into slavery in the Caribbean.5
Many Loyalists remained gloomy about the new nation’s prospects. In February of 1786, merchant James Clarke wrote of his lost home in Newport: "My Attachment to our native Country is so fervent and sincere that I could freely give up my Life, and Ten Thousand more if I posses them, could I restore dear Rhode Island to its former happy, happy Situation."6 Others lived to regret their choice. Massachusetts merchant Samuel Curwen, writing from Exeter, England in early 1777, admitted that he now would have faced "insults, reproaches and perhaps a dress of tar and feathers" rather than his present life of exile after leaving his home. He concluded, "Wherever I turn mine eyes I see ruin and misery all around me."7
After the war's conclusion, the British Parliament used a four-part scheme for determining which exiles were entitled to compensation for losses sustained in support of the king's government. Those entitled to the greatest compensation were individuals who had fought against the revolutionaries, lost property, faced physical assault, or had been forced into exile for supporting the British government. After the war and before his presidency, Washington hosted John Anstey, a commissioner from England handling claims of Loyalist refugees, at Mount Vernon.8
Shannon Duffy, Ph.D. Texas State University, revised by Zoie Horecny, Ph.D. 3 July 2025
Notes:
1. “From Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 12 January 1781,” The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008. Original Source: Revolutionary War Series, Volume 30 (1 January–6 March 1781)
2. “From John Holt to George Washington, 20 November 1775,” The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008. Original source: Revolutionary War Series (16 June 1775–31 December 1783 [in progress]), Volume 2 (16 September 1775–31 December 1775).
3. “From a Council of War, 9-22 May 1778,” The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008. Original source: Revolutionary War Series (16 June 1775–31 December 1783 [in progress]), Volume 15 (May–June 1778)
4. "George Washington to George William Fairfax, 11 March 1778," The Writings of George Washington, Vol. 11, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office); “From George Washington to Thomas, Lord Fairfax, 17 December 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives.
5. Cassandra Pybus estimates that of the approximately twenty thousand slaves who fled to British lines over the course of the war, only around two thousand successfully gained their freedom at war's end. Pybus, "Jefferson's Faulty Math: The Question of Slave Defections in the American Revolution." WMQ 62, no. 2 (Apr. 2005): 243-64.
6. "James Clarke to Miss Coggeshall, Halifax, 5 February 1786," quoted in Crary, The Price of Loyalty, 446-7.
7. "Samuel Curwen to Jonathan Sewall, 19 January 1777," The Journal of Samuel Curwen, Loyalist, edited by Andrew Oliver (Salem: Essex Institute, 1972): vol. 1, 295, footnote 3.
8. “[Diary entry: 11 December 1786],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-05-02-0001-0006-0…
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