"The Children Little Realize the Days of Hardship Before Them" - The Loyalist Plight After the Treaty of Paris

Throughout the Revolutionary War, American Loyalists were often subjected to harassment, physical violence, violation of due process rights, imprisonment and property seizure. As a result, thousands of Loyalists were forced to abandon their lives and make their way to Newport, Quebe, Charleston and New York City for protection. For those who were able to reach the safety of British occupied cities, many found themselves quickly relegated to refugee camps, living in squalor in crowded flop houses or being relocated to new territories outside of America.

Nevertheless, throughout the American Revolution the one thing Loyalists clung to was hope. Most shared a belief that the British government would continue to prosecute the war and crush the rebellion. Even with the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown, many asserted the conflict was still not over. As Charleston Loyalist John Hamilton opined “This Country is not yet lost. It’s to be gain’d still and easier than ever . . . Notwithstanding all our Misfortunes, Great Britain can never, must never relinquish America. The last man and shilling must be expended before she gives America her independence. If she loses America, she loses all her West Indies and must Revert again to her insular Situation, which hardly made her visible on the face of the Earth. . . . I still flatter myself the war will be carried on with vigor in North Carolina and Virginia and a large reinforcement sent out this season. The inhabitants are tired of their French Connections [alliance] and with the Tyranny of their Leaders which is more conspicuous than ever.”

However, when news of the Treaty of Paris, hope was replaced with horror and widespread panic. “We have pass’d a twelve month in the most perplexing state of uncertainty that ever a people did. Long waiting for the articles, expecting they would certainly provide some security for the unfortunate Loyalists, they have only increased our distress and cause of anxiety and to this hour we do not know that they will have the smallest effect in our favor. . . . The spirit of persecution and violence against the unhappy Loyalists does not appear to abate in any degree since the cessation of hostilities.”

In response to the news, Stephen Skinner of New Jersey declared lawlessness had set in. “This country is all confusion. The very Government, said to be established, is tottering . . . all at present Anarchy and confusion and must be so for some years to Come.”

Many Loyalists feared an increase in persecution, property seizures and violence. Unfortunately, their concerns were quickly realized. A New York Loyalist observed “The Rebels breathe the most rancorous and malignant Spirit everywhere. Committees and Associations are formed in every Colony, and Resolves passed that no Refugees shall return nor have their Estates [land property] restored. The Congress and Assemblies look on tamely and want [lack] either the Will or the Power to check [stop] those Proceedings. In short, the Mob now reigns as fully and uncontrolled as in the Beginning of our Troubles, and America is as hostile to Great Britain at this Hour as she was at any Period during the War.” In a letter to his niece, David Colden, likewise noted a rise in abuse of those who remained loyal to the Crown. “The spirit of persecution and violence against the unhappy Loyalists does not appear to abate in any degree since the cessation of hostilities.”

 
In a petition to Guy Carleton for protection, Loyalist Prosper Brown described his mistreatment at the hands of the victorious rebels. According to his letter, following the end of the war he returned to his home in New London, Connecticut with the hope of restarting his life. Upon his arrival, Brown was immediately set upon by an angry mob “and hung up by the neck with his hands tied on board of a vessel laying alongside of the wharf and continued in that posture, the cruelty of which your Excellency can better conceive than his pen can dictate, after which he was taken down, stripped, and whipped with a Cat-and-nine-tails in a most inhuman manner and then tarred and feathered and again hung up at the yardarm as a public spectacle where he continued naked about a quarter of an hour exposed to the shame and huzzas of the most diabolic crew that ever existed on earth.”

In a similar petition, Isaac Foshay described the treatment of his Loyalist father at the hands of a Phillipsburg, New York mob. A large body of residents appeared outside of the residence of his terminally ill father. They demanded his immediate expulsion to Canada. WhenFoshay protested, the mob “got a common wood Slide and put his father on it and carried him down to Tarry town. . . Honeywell [a Patriot] then ordered his father out of the Slide and to walk and threatened to whip him if he did not and did drive him a few yards, but the old man was so very weak and low that he could not walk and begged they would spare him. Honeywell then ordered him into the Slide again and ordered his said son William to drive him down to Morrissania, shaking his Sword over said Williams’s head to make him drive faster, telling him to drive his Corpse to Nova Scotia. That his Brother William drove on and got about eight miles that night, when his father began to spit Blood and grew worse. The next day he proceeded to Morrissania, that his father died in three days after he got there, always complaining of the hurts and bruises he received from Honeywell and his party by putting him on the Slide and using him in the rough manner they did.”

With reports of governmental collapse and mob violence, many Loyalists prepared to flee the country. One New York resident noted “[very] few Refugees or Inhabitants within the British Lines will be able to stay behind. Besides those gone to Europe and Canada, upwards of eleven thousand persons have already removed to Nova Scotia and twelve thousand more have given in their Names to be carried to Nova Scotia and other Places. Almost all the principal people here are gone or going; not the tenth part of the Inhabitants will be able to remain if the Army goes this year.” As they prepared to depart, some tried to visit (perhaps for the last time) relatives and friends who lived outside the protection of British lines. American authorities immediately stopped this. “They are not suffered to go into the country even to take a last farewell of their relations.” 

For those who either chose to stay or were left behind, further persecution and punishment awaited them. Loyalist Thomas Jones recalled “you saw people who had lived all their days in affluence (though not in luxury) leaving their real estates, their houses, stores, ships, and improvements, and hurrying on board the transports with what little household goods they had been able to save. In every street were to be seen men, women, and children wringing their hands, lamenting the situation of those who were about leaving the country, and the more dreadful situation of such who were either unable to leave or were determined, rather than run the risk of starving in distant lands, to throw themselves upon, and trust to, the mercy of their persecutors, their inveterate enemies, the rebels of America . . . Their fears and apprehensions were soon realized. No sooner had the evacuation taken place at Charleston than the rebels, like so many furies, or rather devils, entered the town and a scene ensued, the very repetition of which is shocking to the ears of humanity. The Loyalists were seized, hove into dungeons, prisons and provosts.4 Some were tied up and whipped, others were tarred and feathered.  Some were dragged to horse-ponds and drenched till near dead. Others were carried about the town in carts with labels upon their breasts and backs with the word “Tory” in capitals written thereon. All the Loyalists were turned out of their houses and obliged to sleep in the streets and fields, their covering the canopy of heaven. A universal plunder of the friends to government took place, and to complete the scene, a gallows was erected upon the quay facing the harbor, and twenty-four reputable Loyalists hanged in sight of the British fleet, with the army and refugees on board.”

The flight from the United States was emotionally devastating for Loyalist refugees. Many lamented at the loss of their “native Country”, However, as they resettled in new territories, there was also a sense of relief. Hannah Ingraham left New York with her Loyalist family at age eleven to settle in Nova Scotia. In 1783, she recorded a comment her mother made as they ate breakfast in their newly built home. “A good fire was blazing and mother had a big loaf of bread and she boiled a kettle of water and put a good piece of butter in a pewter bowl. We toasted the bread and all sat around the bowl and ate our breakfast that morning and mother said Thank God we are no longer in dread of having shots fired through our house. This is the sweetest meal I ever tasted for many a day.” Two years after the Treaty of Paris, Nancy Jean Cameron wrote to her cousin Margaret in Scotland. In her letter she declared “At last we are preparing to leave forever this land of my birth. The long weary years of war, followed by the peace years that have been to us worse than the time of fighting, are over . . . Our lands are confiscated and it is hard to raise money at forced sales . . . The children little realize the days of hardship before them and long to start off . . . I am so glad that there will be no more taunting among the elders, no more bickering among the children. Bitter feelings are gone forever. Patriot or rebel, we are what we see is right to each of us, conscience may make cowards.”