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In the Defense of Tories: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World

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In the Defense of Tories: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World Jerry Bannister, Liam Riordan, eds.. The Loyal Atlantic: Remaking the British Atlantic in the Revolutionary Era. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. xxi + 318 pp. $29.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-4426-1109-2. Reviewed by Stephanie Seal Published on H-War (February, 2014) Commissioned by Margaret Sankey (Air University) In the past, many studies of the American nal friendship and loyalist identity formation; loy‐ Revolution have largely ignored the true histori‐ alist print culture and literature; slavery and loy‐ cal significance of America’s loyalists. However, alist migration; and sectarian memory and loyal‐ over the last decade the growing number of stud‐ ist politics. The Loyal Atlantic not only describes ies about loyalism in the Revolutionary Atlantic what loyalism is and how it functioned, but the world has revealed the importance of loyalists collection illuminates how it grew and developed and royalism to a clear understanding of the era. in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These In The Loyal Atlantic: Remaking the British At‐ essays ably describe how loyalism influenced lantic in the Revolutionary Era, editors Jerry Ban‐ Britain’s imperial power and governance in the nister and Liam Riordan explore how loyalism be‐ Atlantic world. came an influential movement in the British Em‐ One of the greatest contributions of The Loyal pire, arguing that it fundamentally shaped the Atlantic is Bannister and Riordan’s creation of a British Atlantic and that the true consequences of unique definition of loyalism. Instead of branding colonization and the American Revolution cannot all Tories who spoke out against American Whigs be fully understood without frst understanding as loyalists, Bannister and Riordan look beyond loyalism in the Atlantic world. The included es‐ the scope of politics and contend that loyalty to says, which were frst presented at the “Loyalism the monarch was more than just an idea, it was and the Revolutionary Atlantic World” conference distinguished by an act. In fact, the loyalists who at the University of Maine in 2009, highlight loyal‐ lived in America, the Caribbean, Ireland, Britain, ism’s scope and purpose within the historiogra‐ and Canada became “loyalists” only after actively phy of the Revolutionary Era. The chapters offer or tactically supporting the Crown. For example, diverse perspectives on the importance of loyal‐ the Tories who moved to Nova Scotia at the begin‐ ism, revolving around four main themes: aborigi‐ ning of the Revolutionary War became much H-Net Reviews more ardent in their support of Great Britain ties that were devastated by the war. John G. when privateers attacked their coasts. Riordan Reid’s “Imperial-Aboriginal Friendship in Eigh‐ and Bannister contend that it was those active teenth-Century Mi’kma’ki/Wulstukwik” explores loyalists who kept the colony British. The editors how loyalists and Celtic migrants played a vital also draw into question Paul H. Smith’s widely cit‐ role in continuing aboriginal-imperial friendships ed statistic on loyalists in the American colonies. in North America. Reid also contends that histori‐ Smith argues that 20 percent of all white Ameri‐ ans’ attempts to define loyalism as allegiance to cans during the Revolutionary Era were Tories by the Crown underestimate the power Tories held identifying loyalists in the British army and using in negotiating relationships between the Crown family members as a multiplier. However, Rior‐ and its aboriginal representatives. The relation‐ dan and Bannister explain that this common ship forged by loyalists and aboriginal groups al‐ statistic severely undercounts the loyalist popula‐ lowed the British Empire to grow across the globe tion during the Revolution. They argue that loyal‐ throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twen‐ ists were far more numerous and that their pres‐ tieth centuries. ence was crucial to the expansion of the British The second section of The Loyal Atlantic ad‐ world. Bannister and Riordan fault most histori‐ dresses the importance of print culture to the loy‐ ans of the Revolution of unthinkingly accepting alist political realm. Philip Gould’s “Loyalists Re‐ national frameworks and unfairly labeling loyal‐ spond to Common Sense: The Politics of Author‐ ists as “traitors” to the United States or “embar‐ ship in Revolutionary America” examines how rassing outcasts” by the British (p. 6). Instead, the loyalists living in the thirteen colonies combated editors (and the collection’s authors) argue that Thomas Paine’s famous work through their own loyalists played important political, cultural, and published responses. Gould sees this as the ideal social roles throughout the empire. case study to highlight the importance of loyalist In the frst section of The Loyal Atlantic, con‐ print culture during the Revolution. Gwendolyn tributors Keith Mason and John G. Reid examine Davies provides an interesting juxtaposition to the frameworks of British imperialism during the Gould’s assessment of loyalist print culture by ex‐ Revolutionary era. Mason’s chapter, “The Ameri‐ amining the press in post-Revolutionary War New can Loyalist Problem of Identity in the Revolu‐ Brunswick. She contends that the loyalist writers tionary Atlantic World,” examines the loyalist of the postwar era created a distinctive sense of struggle in the postwar era regarding issues of cultural identity in New Brunswick that lasted for identity. With Americans creating a new national generations. identity and the British reevaluating their own Section 3 of the volume examines the impor‐ identity after losing the Revolutionary War, loyal‐ tance of loyalists in the post-Revolutionary British ists--as a major player in the conflict--struggled Caribbean. Jennifer K. Snyder’s chapter, “Reper‐ greatly to place themselves within the British At‐ cussions: Loyalist Slaves in St. Augustine and Be‐ lantic community. Mason’s work adds to the pre‐ yond,” discusses how white loyalists and runaway vious scholarship of Dror Wahrman, who exam‐ slaves from the southern United States were ined the ways British subjects and Americans citi‐ forced to negotiate their newly entwined lives un‐ zens defined themselves nationalistically during der duress. Once white and black loyalists fed the and after the war. Mason complicates that view overwhelming violence in the wartime South, the by adding the role of loyalism to both identities, delineation between freedom and enslavement arguing that the presence of loyalists helped de‐ was complicated, specifically in St. Augustine. Car‐ fine the American Revolution as a civil war, since ole Watterson Troxler’s “Uses of the Bahamas by loyalists played an integral role in the communi‐ 2 H-Net Reviews Southern Loyalist Exiles” examines how the loyal‐ Revolution, and the Atlantic world, but offer new ists of New York and the southern colonies who approaches to studying the loyalist exiles of the relocated to the Bahamas after the war rebuilt American Revolution and how their post-Revolu‐ their lives on the island both economically and tion lives affected the British Empire. In his after‐ culturally. Troxler also describes how a loyalist-al‐ ward, eminent loyalist historian Robert Calhoon tered plantation culture and dependence on trade admonishes Neo-Whig historians of the American dominated Bahamian society after the arrival of Revolution, such as the late Edmund Morgan, Jack loyalists. Greene, and Bernard Bailyn, for failing to recog‐ In the fnal section of the book, Allison nize the crucial role of loyalists during the Revolu‐ O’Mahen Malcom and Allan Blackstock examine tion and for not investigating the lives of loyalists the themes of loyalism, religion, and politics at the during and after the war. Calhoon contends that conclusion of the American Revolution. Malcom’s his own work, as well as the work of Leslie Upton, “Loyal Orangemen and Republican Nativists” ar‐ Carol Berkin, Mary Beth Norton, Ann Zimmer, gues that religion played a critical role in defining Janice Potter, William Pencak, and the authors of loyalist culture in Upper Canada after the Revolu‐ this collection, have managed to break into the tionary War and well into the nineteenth century. common narrative of the American Revolution She contends that ultra-Protestantism, complete created by Neo-Whig scholars and highlight the devotion to the British monarchy, anti-American‐ indispensable role loyalists played in the conflict. ism, and conservatism blended to create the mod‐ While The Loyal Atlantic introduces seven el for loyal Canadian identity, an ideology she de‐ important new voices about loyalism to the histo‐ fines as “Orangeism.” This combination created a riography, the book also reveals a problem within political order of Orangemen, who used their mu‐ the spectrum of loyalist studies. The relative new‐ tual devotion to the crown and Protestantism to ness of the modern feld of loyalist studies cur‐ build a “free society” away from a medieval reli‐ rently defies organization into easy categories. Ev‐ gion and American patriotism. Blackstock’s “Pap‐ ery chapter in The Loyal Atlantic details the im‐ ineau-O’Connell Instruments: Irish Loyalism and portance of loyalists to the Revolution, the British the Transnational Dimensions of the 1837 Rebel‐ Empire, and the larger Atlantic world. However, lions in Upper and Lower Canada” examines the at times the editors appear to overreach to com‐ lives of French Canadians and Irish Catholics in bine chapters into thematic sections, a problem Canada after the Revolution. Like Malcom, Black‐ which can also be found in another important col‐ stock traces these groups from the post-Revolu‐ lection on the topic, The Other Loyalists, edited by tion era through the nineteenth century. He ar‐ Eugene Fingerhut and Joseph Tiedemann gues that while the loyalist press in Ulster and (2005).This organizational predicament is by no Connacht was facilitated by Orangeism and west‐ means the fault of the editors; it lies within the ward emigration, its editorial manipulation of the historiography. Without a larger, unifying work 1837 revolts was conditioned by Irish circum‐ on loyalists in North America, the myriad studies stances.
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