Americans remained Loyalists or joined the Patriot cause based on
which side they thought would best promote their interests.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE [ edit ]
Describe the general differences between Loyalists and Patriots
KEY POINTS [ edit ]
Broadly speaking, Loyalists in the American colonies included more prominent merchants in port
cities as well as and men with business and family ties to elites in Britain, while
moreyeoman farmers were found on the Patriot side.
Despite these generalizations, people of all statuses, from poor to rich, were found on both sides.
Historians in the 20th century have emphasized the high levels of ideological unity among those
supportive of the Patriot cause.
TERM [ edit ]
yeoman farmer
Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to
the 17th century.
Give us feedback on this content: FULL TEXT [ edit ]
To understand the opposing groups, historians have assessed evidence of their hearts and
minds. In terms of class, Loyalists tended to have longstanding social and economic
connections to British merchants and government. For instance, prominent merchants in
major port cities such asNew York, Boston and Charleston tended to be Loyalists, as did men
involved with the fur trade along the northernfrontier. In addition, officials of colonial
government, their staffs, and those who had established positions and status to maintain,
favored maintaining relations with Great Britain. They often were linked to British families
in England by marriage, as well.
In the mid­20th century, historian Leonard Woods Labaree identified a set of eight
characteristics of the Loyalists that made them essentially conservative. As part of his study,
he contrasted these traits to those characteristic of the Patriots. For one, Loyalists tended to
resist innovation, as they tended to be older and better established men. They thought
resistance to the Crown—which they insisted was the only legitimate government—was
morally wrong, while the Patriots thought morality was on their side. What's more, Loyalists
were alienated when the Patriots resorted to violence, such as burning houses and tarring
and feathering.
Loyalists wanted to take a centrist position and resisted the Patriots' demand to declare their
opposition to the Crown. Many Loyalists, especially merchants in the port cities, had
maintained strong and long­standing relations with Britain (often with business and family
links to other parts of the British Empire). Many Loyalists realized that independence was
bound to come eventually, but they were fearful that revolution might lead to anarchy,
tyranny, or mob rule. In contrast, the prevailing attitude among Patriots was a desire to seize
the initiative, making systematic efforts to use mob violence in a controlled manner. Labaree
also wrote that Loyalists were pessimists who lacked the confidence in the future displayed
by the Patriots.
In contrast to the Loyalists, patriots by number tended to be yeomen farmers, especially in
the frontier areas of New York and the back country of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and down the
Appalachian mountains. They were craftsmen and small merchants. Like the Loyalists, the
leaders of the Patriots were men of educated, propertied classes. The Patriots included many
prominent men of the planter class from Virginia and South Carolina, for instance, who
became leaders during the Revolution and formed the new government at the national and
state levels.
Historians in the early 20th century, such as J. Franklin Jameson, examined the class
composition of the Patriot cause, looking for evidence of a class war inside the revolution. In
the last 50 years, historians have largely abandoned that interpretation, emphasizing instead
the high level of ideological unity. Just as there were rich and poor Loyalists, the Patriots
were a 'mixed lot', with the richer and better educated more likely to become officers in the
Army. Ideological demands always came first: the Patriots viewed independence as a means
to gain freedom from British oppression and taxation and, above all, to reassert what they
considered to be their rights as English subjects. Most yeomen farmers, craftsmen, and small
merchants joined the Patriot cause to demand more political equality. They were especially
successful in Pennsylvania but less so in New England, where John Adams attacked Thomas
Paine's Common Sense policy for the "absurd democratical notions" it proposed.
Freedom and Equality for All?
This picture depicts George Washington holding the Declaration of Independence. While the
Declaration may have represented freedom for white Americans, the black American in the
background of the picture was still not free.