United Empire Loyalist - Origins

Origins

During the American Revolution, a significant proportion of the population of New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, East Florida, West Florida, and other colonies remained loyal to the Crown. They were compelled to flee to the protection of their King, and the British Empire. The reasons were varied, but primarily were either loyalty to the King, or the belief in peaceful and evolutionary independence, as did eventually occur in Canada. As Daniel Bliss of Concord, Massachusetts (who later became a Chief Justice of New Brunswick) stated: "Better to live under one tyrant a thousand miles away, than a thousand tyrants one mile away." Many Loyalist refugees made the difficult overland trek into Canada after losing their homes, property, and security during the Revolution. The Loyalists, many of whom helped found America from the early 17th century, left a well-armed population hostile to the King and his loyalist subjects to build the new nation of Canada. The motto of New Brunswick, created out of Nova Scotia for loyalist settlement, is "Spem reduxit" (Hope was restored).

Loyalist refugees,mainly of English descent, later called United Empire Loyalists, began leaving at the end of the war whenever transport was available, with considerable loss of property and transfer of wealth. An estimated 70,000 left the thirteen newly independent states, representing about 3% of the total American population, of which 20-30% had supported the Crown during the American War for Independence. Approximately 62,000 were White (who also had 17,000 black slaves) and 8,000 Black; 40,000 went to Canada, 7,000 to Britain, and 17,000 to the Caribbean. Beginning in the mid-1780s and lasting until the end of the century, some returned to the United States from the Caribbean and Nova Scotia.

Following the end of the Revolution and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Loyalist soldiers and civilians were evacuated from New York and resettled in other colonies of the British Empire, most notably in Canada. The two colonies of Nova Scotia (including modern-day New Brunswick), received about 20,000 Loyalist refugees; Prince Edward Island 2,000; and Quebec (including the Eastern Townships and modern-day Ontario) received some 10,000 refugees. An unknown but substantial number of refugees were unable to establish themselves in British North America and eventually returned to the United States. Many in Canada continued to maintain close ties with relatives in the United States, and as well conducted commerce across the border without much regard to British trade laws.