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.

Summary

Liberty’s Exiles chronicles the loyalist diaspora from the United States during and after the Revolutionary War. Historians typically ignore this diaspora as a global phenomenon, the paucity of scholarship resulting from ideological and practical barriers. Jasanoff’s ambitious project covers a period encompassing the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Based on her research in archives around the former British imperial world, Jasanoff explores the lives of loyalist refugees through historical exposition and rich narratives of their individual experiences, referring readers to useful primary sources.

The Introduction begins with an iconic scene, the surrender of British forces at New York City to George Washington’s army in 1783, then considers how this event disrupted the lives of Americans who remained loyal to the British monarchy. Jasanoff establishes the importance of studying the loyalist diaspora as a global phenomenon that scattered approximately 75,000 Americans throughout the British Empire. Loyalists were diverse in terms of race, class, place of origin, and even ideology. From this diversity, Jasanoff discerns common loyalist values, “the spirit of 1783,” consisting of motivation to pioneer the expansion of the British Empire, a distinctive set of humanitarian beliefs, and desire for self-rule.

Chapters 1-3, the first part of the book, cover loyalist experiences of the Revolutionary War. Loyalists faced displacement, property loss, and mob violence. Historians usually portray the Revolutionary War as a war of great principles, but people often chose sides based on circumstances or practical interests. The British government recruited Native and Black Americans to the loyalist cause by promising increased political autonomy and freedom from slavery. Jasanoff chronicles the massive project of evacuating British territory and explores loyalists’ motivations for deciding where to go into exile.

Chapters 4-6, the second part of the book, describe loyalist experiences in Britain and Canada. British officials extended compensation and support but often failed to fulfill promises to loyalists. The Loyalist Claims Commission, established in London in 1783, disappointed loyalists who went to Britain seeking compensation for lost property. Arguments over land allocation led to violence including a major race riot in Nova Scotia in 1784. New Brunswick officials, fearing the chaos of unchecked populist power, suppressed working-class loyalist involvement in representational politics and established a class-segregated provincial capital. In upper Canada, now Ontario, aristocrats openly held power.

The third part of the book covers loyalist experiences in more remote British colonies. Chapters 7-9 describe the lives of refugees in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Freetown in Sierra Leone. Like their counterparts in Canada and Britain, loyalists in these colonial outposts often grew angry at the lack of land, food, and popular political agency. Loyalist refugees overwhelmed the pre-war population of the Bahamas and grew frustrated with failed cotton crops and an increasingly repressive local government. Despite being the center of British sugar production, Jamaica was a hostile place for refugees. Loyalist enslavers found it difficult to access the Jamaican economy due to lack of land and a saturated labor market. Diseases and brutal racial violence plagued the beautiful island. Black settlers from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick established Freetown in Sierra Leone, pushing the British Empire into Africa. Lack of food, land, and freedom led to open insurgency against the Freetown government. Chapter 10 details the causes, key events, and effects of the War of 1812, after which the British Empire turned east, focusing on India. India, never settled by outsiders in the same way as other colonies, became a major source of imperial wealth, partly due to the efforts of American loyalists.

The book’s brief but dense conclusion reveals the ultimate fates and legacies of key figures whose life stories inform this book. Jasanoff argues the divergent personal trajectories within the loyalist diaspora reflect contradictions inherent in the “spirit of 1783” itself. Imperial expansion came from the displacement of people. Loyalist refugees expected opportunities to prosper in their new homelands, but actual conditions in the British colonies fell short of expectations. Loyalist refugees and British government officials clashed over issues of political representation, with disagreements sometimes sparking armed rebellion. Though they remained faithful to the monarchy, loyalist refugees spread dissent throughout the British world. Loyalist refugees were culturally American, and the loyalist diaspora influenced the history of the British Empire in distinctly American ways.