The British-Americans : the Loyalist exiles in England, 1774-1789
"Despised by their fellow colonists and scorned by the Crown they up- held, the Loyalist exiles of the American Revolution became one of the most abused groups in American history. Only recently have historians come to terms with the full complexities of their motives and politics and begun to view their experience dispassionately, as the sad and bitter exile it was. In The British-Americans, the prize-winning young historian Mary Beth Norton tells the story of the 7,000 Loyalists who settled in Eng- land during the "Rebellion." To the elite of the group-major colonial officials, professional men, important merchants, and landowners fell the responsibility of negotiating with Lord North's ministry for financial relief and restitution. To these Loyalists came the daily ignominy of official and social rebuff; the inter- minable waiting; the constant sense of political impotence and financial neglect. Recreating their life in England, Professor Norton examines their attempts to gain just reparations, their influence on the course of the Revolution, and their thoughts and feelings as the United States inexorably became an independent nation. In doing so, she demonstrates the essential integrity of the Loyalists' position. For the British-Americans did not become "Loyalists" in re- action against the Revolution. They simply kept their pledge to the Crown. Though their roots ran deep in America, they could not follow the new direction the country was taking. It was not the Loyalists, therefore, who passed America by, but America who passed by them. When Great Britain passed them by as well, their dispossession was complete. Winner of the Allan Nevins Prize of the Society of American Historians, The British-Americans is an important contribution to our understanding of a vital part of our history -and offers significant insight into the workings of the Revolution as a whole."--Publisher
Print Book, English, ©1972
1st ed
Little, Brown, Boston, ©1972