🌅 Not All Americans Were Patriots

SOURCE

Journal of the American Revolution

WHAT TO KNOW

• In the months after America’s founding fathers declared independence from a tyrannical king, more than 500 men gathered at Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan (which is still open today) to sign a document pledging their allegiance to the Crown and condemning what they described as “the most unnatural, unprovoked Rebellion, that ever disgraced the annuls of Time.” The signatories included civil officials, military officers, clergy, landowners, wealthy merchants, and freed slaves.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Historians estimate that around 15% to 20% of the population remained loyal to Britain during the American revolution, particularly in British strongholds like New York, Pennsylvania, and the Southern Colonies. During the war, loyalists were sometimes killed, but they were more often ostracized and publicly humiliated in an attempt to destroy their public stature, which, while not much of a punishment today, could be devastating in the 18th century. Loyalists also had their property confiscated and people often boycotted their businesses.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• One prominent loyalist was William Franklin, who served as the royal governor of New Jersey from 1762 to 1776 and also happened to be the illegitimate son of American founding father, Benjamin Franklin. On July 4, 1776, William was imprisoned by Patriots in Connecticut, where he would languish for two years before being released and traveling to New York City to lead the loyalist cause. William left New York for London in 1782, where he lived in exile until his death in 1813.