Pennsylvania's Loyalists and Disaffected in the Age of Revolution: Defining the Terrain of Reintegration, 1765-1800 Rene J
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Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 3-19-2018 Pennsylvania's Loyalists and Disaffected in the Age of Revolution: Defining the Terrain of Reintegration, 1765-1800 Rene J. Silva Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FIDC006568 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Legal Commons, Public History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Silva, Rene J., "Pennsylvania's Loyalists and Disaffected in the Age of Revolution: Defining the Terrain of Reintegration, 1765-1800" (2018). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3670. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3670 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida PENNSYLVANIA’S LOYALISTS AND DISAFFECTED IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION: DEFINING THE TERRAIN OF REINTEGRATION, 1765-1800 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY by René José Silva 2018 To: Dean John F. Stack, Jr. choose the name of dean of your college/school Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs choose the name of your college/school This dissertation, written by René José Silva, and entitled Pennsylvania's Loyalists and Disaffected in the Age of Revolution: Defining the Terrain of Reintegration, 1765-1800, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. _______________________________________ Jenna Gibbs _______________________________________ Victor Uribe _______________________________________ Clement Fatovic _______________________________________ Kirsten Wood, Major Professor Date of Defense: March 19, 2018 The dissertation of René José Silva is approved. _______________________________________ choose the name of dean of your college/school Dean John F. Stack, Jr. Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs _______________________________________ Andrés G. Gil Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Dean of the University Graduate School Florida International University, 2018 ii © Copyright 2018 by René José Silva All rights reserved. iii DEDICATION To Maria iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation committee chairperson, Kirsten Wood, for her dedicated guidance. Her clear insights and rigorous scholarship greatly improved the work. Likewise, I would like to thank committee members Jenna Gibbs, Victor Uribe, and Clement Fatovic for their ongoing encouragement and invaluable input which notably enhanced the study. My gratitude to John Stack for his moral support, Micah Oelze for his analysis, and Brett Palfreyman for his aid in the early research. The excellent History faculty at Florida International University whom I had the good fortune to engage during my graduate career deserves recognition for helping to forge this historian, as do the graduate students with whom I shared robust historical debate. For their outstanding assistance in the investigative stages of this inquiry, I would like to thank James Green and Cornelia King at the Library Company of Philadelphia; David Haugaard, Steve Smith, Sarah Heim, and Wilhelm Echevarria at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; and Meg McSweeney, Kathie Ludwig, and Brian Graziano at the David Library of the American Revolution. My appreciation to David Maxey for his suggestions in framing several chapters. I am especially grateful to Francisco José Hernández for prompting me to pursue my doctoral degree and making it possible to do so early in the process, and to David and Kathy Naughton whose hospitality in Philadelphia made my research truly enjoyable. The David Library of the American Revolution Fellowship, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship at the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Florida International University Dissertation Year Fellowship provided funding and made possible the research for this project. Thank you. v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION PENNSYLVANIA’S LOYALISTS AND DISAFFECTED IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION: DEFINING THE TERRAIN OF REINTEGRATION, 1765-1800 by René José Silva Florida International University, 2018 Miami, Florida Professor Kirsten Wood, Major Professor This study examines the reintegration of loyalists and disaffected residents in Pennsylvania who opposed the American Revolution from the Stamp Act crisis in 1765 through the Age of Federalism in 1790s. The inquiry argues that postwar loyalist reintegration in Pennsylvania succeeded because of the attitudes, behavior, actions and contributions of both disaffected residents and patriot citizens. The focus is chiefly on the legal battle over citizenship, especially the responses of the disaffected to patriot legislative measures such as treason, oaths of allegiance, attainders, confiscation, and militia service laws that revolutionaries employed to sanction dissent in the state. Loyalists and the disaffected contributed to their own successful reintegration in three ways. First, the departure of loyalist militants at the British evacuation of occupied Philadelphia in June 1778 and later substantially lessened internal political tensions associated with the rebellion. Second, the overwhelming majority of the disaffected who stayed in Pennsylvania adopted non-threatening attitudes and behaviors towards republican rule. And third, the disaffected who remained ultimately chose to embrace the new republican form of government they had earlier resisted. vi Patriots contributed to the successful reintegration of the disaffected chiefly through the outcome of the factional struggle for internal political supremacy between revolutionary radicals and moderates. Pennsylvania radicals used the rule of law to deny citizenship to opponents of the Revolution and pushed for their permanent exclusion from the body politic. Moderates favored a reincorporation of those who had not supported the rebellion, utilizing the law to foster inclusion. Moderate electoral victories in the decade of the 1780s led to solid majorities in the state assembly that rescinded all repressive measures against former opponents, in particular the 1789 repeal of the Test Act of 1777. The analysis stresses the activities of loyalists and the disaffected, exploring elite loyalist militants such as Joseph Galloway and the sons of Chief Justice William Allen; ordinary loyalist militants like John Connolly and the Rankin brothers of York County; Quaker pacifists such as the Pemberton siblings; loyalists whom patriots perceived as defiant, such as the Doan guerrilla gang and British collaborators Abraham Carlisle and John Roberts; and the Penn family proprietors. Each of these protagonists epitomized a particular strain of loyalism or disaffection in Pennsylvania, ranging from armed resistance to pacifism. Reintegration experiences and outcomes are therefore assessed in relation to these Pennsylvanians’ conduct before, during, and after the Revolutionary War. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 – FROM REVOLUTION TO REINTEGRATION: PENNSYLVANIA’S RESPONSE TO LOYALISM AND DISAFFECTION 23 THE COLONIAL ORDER UNDER DURESS (April 1775 – November 1776) 26 QUELLING DISAFFECTION: THE RADICAL VISION (November 1776 – June 1778) 44 LOYALIST CHOICES & THE RADICAL ZENITH (June 1778 – November 1781) 65 REINTEGRATION & MODERATE ASCENDANCY (November 1781 – April 1794) 81 CONCLUSION 95 CHAPTER 2 – REINTEGRATION & DEPARTURE OF THE ELITE LOYALIST MILITANTS 98 ELITE ANTECEDENTS & THE RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN (to 1765) 102 COLONIAL RESISTANCE, LOYALIST MILITANCY & INDEPENDENCE (1765-76) 110 IN THE SERVICE OF THE KING (1776-1783) 136 THE CHALLENGE OF POSTWAR REINTEGRATION (1783-1838) 156 CONCLUSION 173 CHAPTER 3 – REINTEGRATION & DEPARTURE OF THE ORDINARY LOYALIST MILITANTS 175 JOHN CONNOLLY & MILITANCY ON PENNSYLVANIA’S WESTERN FRONTIER 177 PENNAMITES & LOYALIST MILITANCY ON THE NORTHEASTERN FRONTIER 195 MILITANT LOYALIST LEADERSHIP IN THE COUNTRYSIDE: THE RANKINS 205 LOYALIST MILITANCY IN AND AROUND PHILADELPHIA 224 CONCLUSION 241 CHAPTER 4 – REFUSING THE OATH: REINTEGRATION & THE QUAKER PACIFISTS 245 QUAKER PACIFISM, RELIGIOUS REFORM & THE PEMBERTON BROTHERS 248 COLONIAL POLITICS, THE IMPERIAL CRISIS & THE EARLY REVOLUTION 260 viii VIRGINIA EXILE & THE RETURN TO PHILADELPHIA 276 PACIFIST CONVICTION & REINTEGRATION DURING THE WAR 286 POSTWAR REINTEGRATION, NONJURORS & THE TEST ACT REPEAL 299 REINTEGRATION AFTER THE TEST ACT REPEAL 320 CONCLUSION 326 CHAPTER 5 – LOYALIST DEFIANCE, THE RULE OF LAW & REINTEGRATION 330 THE EXECUTION OF QUAKERS ABRAHAM CARLISLE & JOHN ROBERTS 333 THE DOAN GUERRILLA GANG 348 ARMED HOSTILITY & THE LONG ARM OF REVOLUTIONARY LAW 356 POSTWAR REINTEGRATION & THE CARLISLE/ROBERTS LEGACY 367 CONCLUSION 381 CHAPTER 6 – THE PENNS, REVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATION & REINTEGRATION 384 WILLIAM PENN’S HEIRS & THE PROPRIETARY REGIME 385 THE ARREST & EXILE OF JOHN PENN SR. 391 PROPRIETARY DIVESTMENT: DEFINITIVE END OF AN ERA 399 THE PENNS’ QUEST FOR COMPENSATION 406 REINTEGRATIVE TRAJECTORIES 417 CONCLUSION 428 CLOSING SCENES AND CONCLUSIONS 431 BIBLIOGRAPHY