United Empire Loyalist - Accommodation

Accommodation

The arrival of the Loyalists after the American war of independence (1783) led to the division of Canada into the provinces of Upper Canada (what is now southern Ontario) and Lower Canada (what is now southern Quebec). They arrived and settled in groups of ethnicity and religion.

Loyalists soon petitioned the government to be allowed to use the British legal system they were accustomed to in the American colonies, rather than the French system still in place after the fall of Quebec to Great Britain. The creation of Upper and Lower Canada allowed most Loyalists to live under British laws and institutions, while the French-speaking population of Lower Canada could maintain their familiar French civil law and the Catholic religion.

Realising the importance of some type of recognition, on November 9, 1789, Lord Dorchester, the governor of Quebec and Governor General of British North America, declared "that it was his Wish to put the mark of Honour upon the Families who had adhered to the Unity of the Empire". As a result of Dorchester's statement, the printed militia rolls carried the notation:

"Those Loyalists who have adhered to the Unity of the Empire, and joined the Royal Standard before the Treaty of Separation in the year 1783, and all their Children and their Descendants by either sex, are to be distinguished by the following Capitals, affixed to their names: U.E. Alluding to their great principle The Unity of the Empire."

Some of the richest and most prominent Loyalists went to Britain to rebuild their lives, and many received pensions. Southern Loyalists, many taking along their slaves, went to the West Indies and the Bahamas, particularly to the Abaco Islands.

Thousands of Iroquois and other pro-British Native Americans were expelled from New York and other states and resettled in Canada. The descendants of one such group of Iroquois, led by Joseph Brant Thayendenegea, settled at Six Nations of the Grand River, the largest First Nations Reserve in Canada. Another smaller group of Iroquois led by Captain John Deserontyon Odeserundiye, settled on the shores of the Bay of Quinte in modern day Southeastern Ontario.

The government settled numerous Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, but they faced discrimination and inadequate support. The government was slow to survey their land (which meant they could not settle) and awarded them smaller grants in less convenient locations than those of white settlers. When Great Britain set up the colony of Sierra Leone in Africa, many Black Loyalists emigrated there for what they perceived to be the opportunity of self-government, and established Freetown.

Numerous Loyalists were forced to abandon substantial amounts of property in the United States. Restoration or compensation for this lost property was a major issue during the negotiation of the Jay Treaty in 1795. Negotiations settled on the concept of the United States negotiators 'advising' the US Congress to provide restitution. For the British, this concept carried significant legal weight, far more than it did to the Americans; the U. S. Congress declined to accept the advice. More than two centuries later, some of the descendants of Loyalists still assert claims to their ancestors' property in the United States.