Question Home

Position:Home>History> Why did the Loyalists fight?


Question: Why did the Loyalists fight!?
talking about patriots vs loyalistsWww@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
The Loyalists being law abiding were originally passive relying on the British for protection, but after they became increasingly persecuted, terrorised and humiliated by the Patriots,, about half of them became active!.hose Loyalists that didn’t become active and the Non aligned were forced under the threat of death to swear and sign oaths of allegiance to the rebel cause!.
As this then turned it more into a civil war the patriots not only put their propaganda machine into overdrive, claiming such things as ‘Tories’ took babes from the breasts of their mothers to dash their brains out and the alleged Tarleton’s quarter, they also evolved a Presbyterian religion that as good as justified carrying out inhuman war crimes against Loyalists and keeping redcoat prisoners in such appalling conditions that most died!.
At the battle of Kings Mount the rebels had surrounded a heavily outnumbered Loyalist unit, who's position had became hopeless so had (despite the rebels usually not taking Loyalist militia as prisoners), tried to surrender, but the Lowlife 'Over the mountain back-woodsmen' just cut Major Ferguson to pieces and violated his body and this to a man who's chivalry in battle had prevented him from shooting Washington in the back!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The same reason General George Thomas, General John Buford, General Winfield Scott, and other lesser known Southerns fought for the Union in the civil war!. They were fighting for their country!.

The American revolution was not a civil war!. England did not conquer America!. It settled America through westward expansion in the same way that Americans settled Kansas!. They were the same country!. Americans could pack up and move to England and would have all the rights of British citizens the way you can move from Texas to Oregon and have all the same rights as American citizens!.

The conflict was over the rights they had when they lived in America!. The patriots wanted to settle things by fighting!. The Loyalists believed that the British system would eventually lead to a peaceful spread of rights, and they were right if you look at Canada, Australia, and New Zealand!.

For the Loyalists, the argument was not worth destroying the country over which is what they thought the patriots wanted to do!.

For them a saying by Stephan Decatur, an American hero of latter times applies, "My country right or wrong!. When right, to keep her right!. When wrong, to make her right!."Www@QuestionHome@Com

I like the answers above!. The loyalists were subjected to great hardship including tarring and feathering which would cause serious and sometimes fatal burns!. They were threatened with loss of property by militant revolutionaries!.

This below is from a Wiki source, but it seems a fair discussion of the varied situation of Loyalists which made up perhaps 15 to 20% of the American colonial population!.
http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Loyalist_(A!.!.!.
"Historian Robert Middlekauff summarizes scholarly research on who was a Loyalist as follows:
The largest number of loyalist were found in the middle colonies: many tenant farmers of New York supported the king, for example, as did many of the Dutch in the colony and in New Jersey!. The Germans in Pennsylvania tried to stay out of the Revolution, just as many Quakers did, and when that failed, clung to the familiar connection rather than embrace the new!. Highland Scots in the Carolinas, a fair number of Anglican clergy and their parishioners in Connecticut and New York, a few Presbyterians in the southern colonies, and a large number of the Iroquois Indians stayed loyal to the king!.
New York City and Long Island (the British military and political base of operations in North America from 1776 to 1783) had a very large concentration of Loyalists, many of whom were refugees from other states!.
Loyalists tended to be older, more likely merchants and wealthier, but there were also many Loyalists of humble means!. Many active Church of England members became Loyalists!. Some recent emigrants, especially Scots, had a high Loyalist proportion!. Loyalists in the South, however, were suppressed by the local Revolutionaries who controlled local and state government!. Many people — such as some of the ex-Regulators in North Carolina — refused to join the Revolutionaries as they had earlier protested against corruption by the local authorities who later became Revolutionary leaders!. Such pre-Revolutionary War oppression by the local Whigs contributed to the reason that much of back country North Carolina tended to be loyalist!. Most of the Pennsylvania Dutch (Germans in Pennsylvania) were loyalists!. They feared that their royal land grants would be in danger with a new republican form of government!."Www@QuestionHome@Com

Loyalists fought, like most people do, because they either had something to lose, if they lost the battle, or something to win, if they win the war or battles!.
It's usually, for money, positions, or estates!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

To defend the mother country (Britain) against the patriots fighting for independence!.Www@QuestionHome@Com