Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World

Abstract

According to Maya Jasanoff, the experience of British Loyalists who left after the American Revolution illustrates how that war transformed not only the United States but also the British Empire. Ironically, the refugees brought with them disruptive elements of the political cultures they had abandoned. More importantly, they helped create a new empire, shaped by the “spirit of 1783,” which expanded beyond the Atlantic to become truly global. On one hand, this new vision endorsed liberty and humanitarianism by extending protection to subjects of all ethnicities and faiths. On the other hand, it strengthened social hierarchies and centralized government. Loyalists and others found they received assistance from above rather than rights that facilitated challenges to authority. The Revolution’ s end brought disappointment and a sense of betrayal to Loyalists. The treaty failed to secure their property or protect them against postwar reprisals. It left uncertain the standing of slaves who had sought liberty with British forces. East Florida, to which many Loyalists had fled, was ceded to Spain. Consequently many Loyalists left the United States, and some would migrate multiple times. Many who went to East Florida departed again, and migrants to Great Britain often failed to gain sufficient property or income to live as they wished in the place they had long thought of as home.

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