Resources
“We can’t afford to let our politicians destroy whatever opportunities might be created… …And its’ not hard to see why – if our fears about being sold out are finally allayed, in a few years from now these politicians could be redundant. We must analyse the situation for our own needs, not theirs. We’ve been marched up to the top of the hill and down again once too often.”
___ Hall, a Loyalist
“The die is now cast; the colonies must either submit or triumph…. we must not retreat.”
King George III, in a letter to Lord North, 1774
“These rustics are so inept. It nearly takes the honor out of victory. Nearly.”
Lord Charles Cornwallis
“Neglected by Congress below, distressed with the small-pox; want of Generals and discipline in our Army, which may rather be called a great rabble, our credit and reputation lost, and great part of the country; and a powerful foreign enemy advancing upon us, are so many difficulties we cannot surmount them.”
Benedict Arnold
When the government violates the people’s rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties.
Marquis de Lafayette
“He comes, he comes, the Hero comes:
Sound, sound your trumpets, beat your drums.
From port to port let cannon roar
Howe’s welcome to this western shore.”
A Loyalist poet penned these lines at General William Howe’s approach to New York in 1776
“Unhappy it is… to reflect that a brother’s sword has been sheathed in a brother’s breast, and that the once happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?”
General George Washington in a letter to George William Fairfax, about the Battle of Concord, May 31, 1775
British General John Burgoyne earned the nickname “Gentleman Johnny” for his love of leisure and his tendency to throw parties between battles. His surrender to American forces at the Battle of Saratoga marked a turning point in the Revolutionary War.
No middle ground exists “between the supreme authority of Parliament and the total dependence of the colonies: it is impossible there should be two independent legislatures in one and the same state.”
Thomas Hutchinson, Royal Governor of Massachusetts
“I cannot conclude without mentioning how sensibly I feel the dismemberment of America from this empire, and that I should be miserable indeed if I did not feel that no blame on that account can be laid at my door, and I did not also know that knavery seems to be so much the striking feature of its inhabitants that it may not in the end be an evil that they will become aliens to this kingdom.”
King George III, Letter to Shelburne, 1782
The Battle of Guilford Court House is considered by some to be the hardest-fought of the entire Revolutionary War: “I never saw such fighting since God made me.”
Lord Charles Cornwallis
“Colonel Tavington, why, after six weeks, am I still here at Middleton place attending a ball in South Carolina while I should be attending balls in NORTH Carolina?”
Lord Charles Cornwallis
Because our bylaws say one must first be “currently a member of an organization requiring proof of descent from a Patriot of the American Revolution”, the resources for this page will lean toward loyalist lines.
Please feel free to visit the links below for help with your Loyalist research:
From Lorine McGinnis Schulze: http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/loy
and http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com/search?q=Loyalists
United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada: http://www.uelac.org
From Don N. Hagist, Loyalist Researcher:
His blog: http://redcoat76.blogspot.com/
Other recommendations from Don N. Hagist:
Journal of the American Revolution: http://allthingsliberty.com
Loyalist Institute: http://royalprovincial.com