Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World

The first book-length treatment of the loyalist diaspora as a global phenomenon, Liberty’s Exiles (2011) investigates an aspect of world history seldom acknowledged in scholarly literature. During and after the Revolutionary War, American loyalists who sided with the British fled the United States, seeking refuge throughout the British Empire. Involving approximately 75,000 people, or about 1 in 40 Americans, the loyalist diaspora altered the British world. Author Maya Jasanoff, Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University, conducted archival research around the former empire, discovering primary sources documenting the perspectives of individual loyalist refugees. Combining expository history with richly descriptive narratives from the lives of loyalists in exile, Jasanoff explores the diversity of loyalist refugee experiences. The book reveals common patterns that defined this diaspora and shows how loyalists spread a distinctly American set of values, which Jasanoff calls “the spirit of 1783,” around the globe. Ambitious in scope and innovatively written to include the stories of both famous and ordinary people, Liberty’s Exiles has won multiple awards, including the National Book Circle Critics Award in 2011 and the George Washington Book Prize in 2012.

This guide refers to the 2011 Alfred A. Knopf edition.