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Buried History of 

the AmericanRevolution

What led to the American war of independence ? 

What were the Rebel grievances ? 

Who really were the Rebels ?  &  What were their motives ? What actually happened to the Loyalists ? 

The 181!1" aftermath war?  

Prior to the American Revolution the majority of colonists thought of themselves as British,respected English law and did not want to rebel against their King or change their agreements by

force.

he thirteen colonies were !rown property and most settlers, including thePilgrim "athers #who only made up a third of those arriving on the$ayflower, the rest were radicals%, agreed to wor& for a limited period

under the terms and conditions of an indentured employee in e'change for free passage, a land grant negotiated with the (ndians and a much betterlifestyle than their counterparts in Britain.

(n most respects the American colonies governed themselves, but as theystarted to e'pand, border disputes with )ew "rance increased. *o Britain

was obliged to deploy regulars to maintain an uneasy peace with the "rench and also protectcolonist+s homes from (ndian depredations. his truce lasted until a year old lieutenant colonelin the British army, a certain -eorge ashington had his men launch an unprovo&ed attac& on"rench troops at /umonville -len in 0123, &illing 04 of them and murdering their commander. hiseffectively spar&ed off the seven5year war #0126567% during which the "rench tried to drive the#non5"rench% colonists out of America. o defend them, Britain had to increase its troop numbers in

the colonies to ten thousand men. his is because when the colonists were left to their owndevices, they nearly always lost, -eorge ashington was particularly useless getting himselfcaptured by the "rench8 #it wasn+t until the revolution that he became an outstanding -eneral%.  

9espite the colonists being comparatively wealthy, with some very wealthy, the cost of thisprotection was nearly all being borne by the British ta'payer  and the seven5year war had added

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024 million pounds #:;4,244,444% on top of an already crippling debt, incurred while defending<anover from the "rench, Austrian, *a'on, *wedish and Russian Alliance.

his deficit was made worse by corruption in the colonies actually causing ta' revenue to costBritain =;444 in order to collect =444 ta', and this at a rate of only si'pence a year each.

he British had repeatedly tried to get the colonists to pay towards their protection, by introducingvarious ta'es, but all were unpopular.

*o after the seven5year war the British had a massive debt with few ways to reduce it, so they hadto limit e'penditure and as the colonists had been the beneficiaries, it was decided>

0. he settlers were to stop ta&ing more and more (ndian land, to limit spiralling defence costsand adding to the debt burden

. he settlers were to stop murdering the (ndians #many of which had helped defeat the"rench%, so as not to upset the only money ma&er in America, that of trading for "urs

7. hey had to stop endemic corruption such as smuggling and bribery, that was costing thee'che?uer so much money

3. hey had to find a way of introducing a ta' system that wor&ed to help with the debtburden.

)o ta'ation without representation, the rebels said, but they did have representation through thecolonial legislature@governor and had only been paying one twenty5si'th of the ta' that a British ta'payer paid, who were effectively subsidiing them by bearing the burden of their protection.

9espite its notoriety, the objection to ta' levied on tea was a ruse8 the real issue was the Britishhad, in an attempt to curtail their activities, under5cut the price of tea offered by smugglers, so it+snot surprising that most of the revolutionary leaders were in fact smugglers. But what is less well&nown is these same leaders had become wealthy dealing with the enemy during the *even5ear5ar, while fellow Americans were fighting to help save the colonies from the "rench.

 Another reason not often mentioned is that the local legislatures for their own ends, &ept devaluingtheir currencies to the point of ma&ing them virtually worthless. his cheated creditors out ofmoney8 but also created large numbers of debtors in the colonies.

he money owed wasn+t theirs to lose, so by promising to absolve these debts, the rebels deviseda powerful incentive for support.

he British had also drawn a proclamation line along the Appalachian $ountain pea&s, honouringagreements to limit further encroachment onto (ndian land and arrest the spiralling cost ofprotecting the colonists from (ndian reprisals.

herefore those that settled beyond this line were the cause of a lot of problems as not having anymoney8 they just became adept at murdering the (ndians in order to ta&e their land. *uch people

put e'tra strain and e'pense onto the British defences and were of course the natural allies ofthose powerful colonists, such as -eorge ashington who wished to benefit from (ndian landspeculation.

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hen a <abeas corpus case #having to justify the reason for someone+s detention% was started inCondon 0110, which found that slavery was contrary to the laws of England. his verdict ultimatelyled to the abolition of slavery in Britain. he ramifications of which was not lost on the future rebelleaders as most being slave owners would have considered it a threat to their livelihoods.

he rebel leaders or founding fathers #all ?uasi5atheists e.g. 9eists% only represented about 1D of two and ?uarter million colonists #although they said it was 77D%, but even if this was correct they&new they would have never won power through a referendum, so as they possess considerable

propaganda s&ills, they called themselves Patriots, contrived incidents li&e the so called  Bostonmassacre, portrayed their own vested interests as philanthropic ideals, and incited a reign ofterror, aimed at civil authorities to disrupt society.

(n reality <ancoc& was a very weathly smuggler, but the British had undercut his overpricedbusiness and sommoned him to appear in court at a time he and *amuel Adams were &nown tohave been in Ce'ington, where the shots of un&nown source were fired at both sides resulting inseveral $ilitiamen being &illed.

he others including *am Adams #a failed businessman accused of embelement%, Allen, Paine,"ran&lin, /efferson, and $adison were bitter men, who for various reasons held grievances againstthe British.

he British only really wanted the smuggling and bribery to stop. 

he rebels strategy of attac&ing Coyalists, tarring and feathering them etc. to force them to resigntheir posts could have provided a role model for <itler in the 0F74s, as they also too& advantage of unemployment to form their own militia, training them to ta&e on the army #redcoats% while at thesame time as appealing to everyones sense of freedom, were really manoeuvring to dominate thecolonists, majority of which were apposed to them.

hey were in fact, what we consider today as insurgents@terrorists and those that most loudlyespoused freedom, were controlling the largest number of slaves.

ashington had become one of the wealthiest men in the Americas by marrying into as muchmoney as he could and was an'ious to gain even more through land speculations, if the (ndiansland, which was being protected by Britain could be seied, so its not surprising he wasnt the typeto want to pay any ta'es.

But it could be concluded that this motivation of greed had transformed him from a mediocre

general under the British into an outstanding -eneral, but he was at least as harsh on his troops asany British commander or even more so, as he would e'tend any lashing over several days forthose he disapproved of, waiting for wounds to scab over before having them opened up again,then time and time again.

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he one5sided accounts generally given by American historians, websites and film ma&ers dontoften mention the Battle of Penobscot Bay, probably because a mere 24 British redcoats held off7444 Rebels for several days, until the Royal )avy arrived, at which point they embar&ed their 34ships, but only to sail up river where they managed to shipwrec& themselves and disappear intothe $aines wilderness never to be seen again.

he Coyalists were about 34D of the population overall, #Cong (sland was F4D Coyalist% and thosethat just didn+t want to be on the losing side #including late loyalists%, made up the remaining 77D.

he Coyalists being law abiding were originally passive relying on the British for protection, butafter they became increasingly persecuted, terrorised and humiliated by the rebels, about 02,444 joined as provincials with the British Army and another 04,444 served part5time with the variousCoyalist militias. $any of who became highly motivated after e'periencing rebel brutality, ane'ample of such a person is homas Brown the son of a merchant, who had tried to confront agang of the *ons of Ciberty, but they attac&ed him, fracturing his s&ull, then partially scalped him,tarred his legs and held him over a fire with which he lost toes. he evil behind this revolutionapparent, he went on to recruit hundreds of men to serve bravely with the East "lorida Rangers,the unit that held off $ad Anthony ayne for 6 months allowing everyone to evacuate *avannahsafely. But as usual with such a determined leader, he has since been vilified by G* historians.

hose Coyalists that remained passive and the )on5aligned were forced under the threat of deathto swear and sign oaths of allegiance to the rebel cause.

his turning it more into a civil war the rebels put their propaganda machine into overdrive,claiming things li&e Hories+ too& babes from the breasts of their mothers to dash their brains outand the alleged arleton+s ?uarter . Also many of the rebels recruited had evolved a Presbyterianreligion that as good as justified carrying out inhuman war crimes against Coyalists and &eepingredcoat prisoners in such appalling conditions that most died.

 Anglican clergymen give testimony to this, as when they had previously ventured to into placessuch people had settled, found their lives Hlow, lay, sluttish, heathenish, hellish and when trying toperform a church service, they always would turn it into a drun&en singing revelling and dancingorgy.

 An e'ample of what these "rom over the mountain people were capable of, was at the battle ofKings $ount where having surrounded a heavily outnumbered Coyalist unit, whose position hadbecame hopeless so had #despite rebels not usually ta&ing Coyalist militia as prisoners%, tried tosurrender8 they just cut $ajor "erguson to pieces and violated his body and this to a man whosechivalry in battle had prevented him from shooting ashington in the bac&.

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 Also if any other e'amples of barbarity were re?uired, they then used this distortion of religion to justify firstly starving those prisoners that they did ta&e, only to hang or shoot most of them later.

hile the British won most of  the battles, #despite often being outnumbered %, the conflict wasreally won by "rance *pain and <olland who also declared war on Britain with Russia *weden and9enmar& also denying trade. he coup5de5grIce was when "rench ships bloc&aded !hesapea&ebay denying !ornwallis any relief and then a storm prevented him from retreating across the river,giving him no choice but to surrender.

hese same "rench ships then went on to the est (ndies where Rodneys fleet #who were onewee& too late to save !ornwallis%, caught up with them and smashed them to pieces.

he "rench officers that had fought alongside the rebels were surprisingly conciliatory towards!ornwalliss men on their surrender at or&town, its as if they &new their hypocrisy would reboundon them, they had fought a devious war to first aid the American rebels to remove the British, then#which isn+t well &nown% to try later on to regain lost territory by going to war with the Americansthemselves. Although an undeclared war, the "rench did actually try this in the Juasi5ar  but

luc&ily for the Americans, Britain changed tactics and left them too stretched to finance it beyondinflicting terrible losses on American shipping.

Britain could have fought on in America, but with her very e'istence under threat, wisely decided toconsolidate her forces to fight "rance and *pain directly and in doing so defeated them, whichactually protected the Americans.

he "rench people were left so impoverished by all this that their leaders, who had decided to fightwith the American rebels, then suffered by their own e'ample when having made inevitable therebellion against King Couis L0 and his entourage, they where duly e'ecuted in the "renchRevolution 

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*pain would also suffer a considerable loss when later her own colonies followed the Americane'ample.

9uring their rebellion the American republicans had relin?uished almost universally their religionand morality, to a point that they drove most true church ministers out of the country whichmitigated recriminations when the vast majority of ordinary Americans did not gain as a result ofthe rebellion, in fact most lost out, with the soldiers not receiving the land or the amount of pay theywere promised, the Blac&s remained as slaves and the (ndians were subjected to ethnic cleansing.Mnly some of the rebel leaders gained and they imposed far more ta'es upon the people thanBritain would have done and also set up the monopolies that was the real cause of the north v

south civil war , emancipation of slaves only became an issue to defeat the south.

But what happened to the Coyalists was similar to what happened in Europe to the /ews during thend orld ar and would have probably e'perienced the same fate, had the most venerable ofthem not fled, #mainly to !anada%. he e'pression HCynch $ob+ comes from the American Patriot/udge Cynch who hung anyone suspected of being a Coyalist with impunity. *uch was the ealousbehaviour of some rebels they not only forced mothers to witness the hanging of their Coyalistsons, rebel fathers would actually hang their own Coyalist sons. Blac& Coyalists were not only hungbut their bodies were also publicly burnt.

he G*A had even attempted to cut off a retreat for the Coyalists, by invading !anada with a largeforce, but a combination of the G* troop+s long march through $aine+s wilderness led by Benedict

 Arnold8 !arleton+s defensive tactics and a bliard fortunately thwarted them.

hose loyalists that hadnt fled to the relative safety of British held areas e.g. )ew or& hoping toavoid being dispossessed, ran the ris& of torture or even murder.

 At the formal end of the war at treaty of Paris, the British gave the Americans very generoussettlement terms on the understanding that they would earnestly recommend that the Coyalistswould have their land returned to them or receive fair compensation for such, the Americansreneged on this, with only *outh !arolina ma&ing any real effort to compensate them. Gnbelievablee'cuses were given why they bro&e this agreement, e.g. there was no national government so thestates had no need to accept any recommendations from !ongress, despite it being the same

people in !ongress ma&ing the recommendations that when in the national government theyrejected it N Another was> it gave opportunities to others, which is the same as saying a theft givesopportunities to others.

But the conse?uence of this mentality was pathetic wagon trains of Coyalist women and childrenmoving north and a bigoted sense of freedom its legacy.

 Any that returned to see& redress found their persecution was as fierce as ever.

*o about 044,444 of them that would not live in fear of their lives or with no rights fled mainly to!anada to set up enduringly loyalist towns in )ova *cotia, Prince Edward (sland, !ape Breton andof course the Bay of "undy where descendents of loyalists par e'cellence will still fly the union

flag along side their own Provencial flags.

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he Coyalists descent were made up appro' of ;D -erman #the name )ew Brunswic& mayreflect this%, 7D *cottish, 0;D English, 0D (rish, ;D 9utch, 2D "rench, 3D elsh, D from*witerland, 9enmar& and *weden.

 About as many again of African origin were on the loyalists side that shouldnt be forgotten andcontrary to popular belief a high proportion of the (rish fought with the British.

 About 3444 Coyalists, mainly the types most able to survive, but few with the ?uasi5urbanbac&ground of their eastern brethren, went up through )ew or& state to settle Kingston and)iagara and being better suited to the frontier struggle which faced them, formed the nucleus ofwhat is now Mntario. heir provincial flag incorporates a union canton, showing their loyalistheritage and their motto Gt incepit "idelis sic permanent means Coyal she began loyal sheremains.

Mthers fled to either "lorida #then British%, Bermuda, Bahamas@ Abaco@ Eleuthera@ E'uma, ur&s O!aicos, /amaica, 9ominica, *t Cucia, the $is&ito !oast #later to British <onduras now Belie% and*ierra Ceone. hose that arrived in Britain were in a pitiable situation, so much so that Cord )orththe Prime $inister, intended to arrange for them to be given passage and land in Australia as freesettlers, even to introduce them to potential ahiti wives, but his government was defeated in ageneral election before this could ta&e place.

<is successor the hard5nosed Cord *ydney had different ideas and decided, following a period ofloc&ing up mere petty criminals, to send them instead, to both reduce the self5inducedovercrowding problem in <$ prisons and #one must conclude% to conveniently have lessindependent settlers for a new colony.

$ost people in Lermont did not ta&e part in the rebellion and wanted to remain independent oreven part of !anada, but were threatened by ashington and forced to join the G*A, so ;444 ofits settlers moved just across the border into !anada, where they set up the eastern townships inorder to escape the chaos, ta'es and anarchy that had become rife in the new G*.

 An indication of what life was li&e in the new G*A is an armed uprising too& place in$assachusetts from 01;6 to 01;1 against crippling ta'ation which had caused most to fall deeplyin debt and then as a conse?uence faced them with either imprisonment or their property

confiscated for the state to sell. his popular rebellion led by 9aniel *hays, was crushed whennearly all of its leaders were caught and sentenced to death, 9aniel *hays died in dire poverty.

(n 01F6 the British tried again to get compensation for the Coyalists by agreeing to withdraw fromforts in Mhio country, if the Americans would agree to act more effectively on Coyalists claims. heBritish withdrew on schedule but the Coyalist claims were never settled, even though the British didall they could to pacify the (ndians

he final injustice was that the loyalists were made to disappear and what force of arms could noterase, G* historians have so diligently buried, so that their persecution remains ignored andforgotten.

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(n 0;0, while Britain was at the height of her struggle with a )apoleon led Europe, that $adisonand his party were aiding, Britains very survival was at sta&e, so she naturally tried to impound thisaid.

(n response the anglophobic G* ar <aw&s &nowing Britain was unli&ely to be able to reinforceher meagre 2444 man force in !anada and as the total population of !anada was only appo'.244,444 against around 1,244,444 million in the G*A, thought it was a good time to ta&eadvantage of Britain+s preoccupation.

*o they claimed the British were arming the (ndians, #when the truth was they didn+t have enougharms for themselves%, grossly inflated the number of American sailors seied in error whileboarding their ships to retrieve #poached% enlisted seamen and persuaded $adison, despite thesuffering already inflicted on the Coyalists, to declare war and try to anne' !anada which wouldeffectively steal their land again.

 America used its considerable s&ill of propaganda to try to get the !anadians to switch allegianceand join the G*A, but the Coyalists &new the worthlessness of President $adisons pompousproclamations and promises and wisely remained deeply distrusting of the G* and its brand ofrepublicanism.

he G* attac&ed with 244 troops at "ort $alden where the only men -eneral Broc& had availablewas 024 British, 024 (ndians and 744 !anadian militia #Coyalists%, who &nowing their fate if theyfailed, fought with such determination that another 144 (ndians and former slaves joined in to helpout repelling the invaders.

Gpper !anada would have been vitally under siege, but for the "ederalists in )ew England andLermont who wanted nothing to do with this war and continued to trade and supply the British andalong with the loyalists in )ova *cotia and )ew Brunswic& helped them to continue to hold out.

Mver the ne't two years the G*A deployed considerably more resources than struggling Britainand !anada were able to, #who+s only ace was a naval bloc&ade% and as a conse?uence gainedterritory.

 An interesting factor was that some G* troops, mainly those that had travelled all that way from thesouthern *tates, then used their right on several occasions not to cross into !anada, maybe theysaw through their leaders rhetoric

 As one would e'pect, the audacious G*A employed a range of warring tactics, including proving#while on raiding parties% that they were still not above, their old tric&s of committing atrocitiesagainst loyalists, at such places as or& #oronto%, Port 9over, Port albot, ur&ey Point and CongPoint.

But it+s a tribute to the defenders that the G* never achieved a decisive tactical advantage.

hen )apoleon bit off more than he could chew and suffered a major setbac& in Russia, Britaincould at last reinforce her beleaguered !anadian army, to at least match the G*A+s and allow it togo on the offensive. "irstly to regain lost territory, then to ta&e $aine. As a reprisal for or&, they

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set fire to all public buildings in ashington, badly scorching the Presidential $ansion, so much sothat it had to be whitewashed, they now call it the hite <ouse.

hen because British shipping had been suffering at the hands of pirates operating out ofBaltimore, the Royal )avy was sent to curtail their activities. he pirates however had anticipatedthis and too& the initiative by scuttling all their ships themselves to seal off the harbour from attac&.

*o to ma&e sure they had got the point the British treated "ort $c<enry to a roc&et bombardmentwhich together with $ary Pic&ersgill+s splendid ensign, gave "rancis Key the inspiration to write apoem to the melody of an old British drin&ing song that is now the G* national anthem

hereafter with no sensible land objectives left, the British went on to lose a pivotal battle at Ca&e!hamplain, where !aptain 9ownie was badly let down and &illed, then with the sudden

disappearance of a covering mist while advancing through boggy ground they too& heavy losses at)ew Mrleans, just a day before news arrived that a peace treaty had been signed wee&s earlier,ma&ing this the most tragic battle of this ill5conceived war.

he war was considered a disaster, predictably the G* claimed they had won #as $adison+s nec&was on the line%, peace was declared and relations were normalised.

(n an effort to try again, to get the Coyalist issues settled, the British gave up most of $aine #thee'ception was a disputed border area%. he G* not being content with this then indulged in someposturing and declared the phoney Aroostoo& war.

Britain then even conceded most of this disputed area on the solemn understanding that the G*A

would ma&e every effort and to earnestly resolve the lingering Coyalist issues.

But true to form they not only reneged on this again, they e'posed their vindictive nature bypersecuting those amongst them #"ederalists% that had opposed the war.

*ince then G* historians have largely ignored the e'istence of Coyalists, if mentioned at all, theyunderestimate their numbers #to typically 0254D of population% by conveniently ignoring that,those robbed of everything, made homeless, reduced to mere survival, would have lac&ed the timeor means to record their e'periences and as their e'istence passes from memory, any papers thatdo e'ist are scattered and buried under a barrage of opposing jingoism. herefore an honourablepeople subjected to the cruellest treatment, forcing all too many of them into suicide, continue to

be victimised by a negative portrayal.

he Coyalists are demonised or dismissed as simply obtuse and their crime of not wanting to liveunder mob rule, chaos, insecurity, huge debts and the certainty of an ensuing civil war for the ne't044 years or so, has in the eyes of the G*A, forfeited them any rights.

 And their only 'crime' is remaining the ‘Good Americans’.