Forgotten History: The 'Good Americans' Who Stayed Loyal to the King 

Ultimately this was a civil war. When the war began the revolutionaries declared themselves free born Englishmen

We kept the sarcasm. It was just the tea and King we tossed. LOL

One of the more famous "Loyalist Americans" was General Sir John Stuart (no relation), who commanded the British Army against the French at the Battle of Maida in southern Italy on, ironically, 4th July 1806. Maida (Vale) was one of the three British victories in the Napoleonic Wars that had an area of London named after it.

As an expat living in the US (and someone who chose to become an American in 2022) this video is right up my alley. 😂

George Washington did serve and fight for the English Crown during the French and Indian Wars as an Officer in the British Colonial Army.

The Battle of Kings Mountain was Americans vs Americans. Two of my ancestors were loyalists. They stayed here and moved to the Tennessee frontier after the Revolution.

A few years back, I did the genealogy search and discovered my family came from Plainfield Conneticut as Loyalists. Several were in Butlers Rangers.

As a UEL descendent I loved this video. Ancestors in Peter’s QLR, Sir Johnson’s KRRNY, Pennsylvania Loyalists, King’s Rangers, etc.

So glad to see some AWI videos! To really understand the British army during the war read “With Zeal and with bayonets only” and Mark Urban”s “Fusiliers”.

Never really thought much on this topic until I discovered a single player board game from white dog games called, “don’t tread on me,” where you play through through the revolutionary war from the British/Loyalist perspective. History will always be simplified for the masses - for practical reasons, but like anything else it’s nice to remember that like anything else the conflict was much more nuanced

Loved the video. As a descendant of Captain John Hatfield (a loyalist) this was particularly interesting.

I grew up in Loyalist country in Eastern Ontario on the St Lawrence River. It was the first European settlement west of Montreal, and became home to New York State militia and British regulars & families, plus a Scottish Reg. sent over to bulk them out, so mainly Scottish in make up. Celtic fiddling and bagpipes are still common there east to Atlantic Canada. Their sons had to fight the Americans again in an attempted invasion in 1813 in the Battle of Cryslers' Farm. Later in life I lived in another Loyalist enclave in New Brunswick on the modern border with Maine. Some of the buildings in St. Andrews were moved there from the USA by barge from across the bay at the mouth of the St. Croix River.

I had 3 family members all in the Butler's Rangers, they escaped to Canada and were blacklisted from the US

I was never interested in the American Revolution because it was always Disneyfied into one dimensional, sacarine propaganda, but the real history is truly fascinating.

I live in Pensacola, FLorida, which was heavily defended by Loyalists, Creek Indians, German hired troops and the Regular British Army. We have a large mounted statue of General Bernardo Galvez and a bust of the same Spanish Officer, but there isn’t even a plaque honoring the Loyalists that defended the town. That is in complete contrast to the Regiment of Royal Americans that defended the town from the French, Spanish and Indians and their great reputation defending this Frontier of the Empire.

If the king had given a damn and had conceded to the colonial demands we could still be a British territory. History is fascinating.

Great talk and very informative! Shedding light on an area that many would rather ignore as it doesn’t fit the “ narrative “.

Fantastic interview Chris. Very informative. So many layers to this. Massive thanks to Todd and yourself.

I love the way you lightened up the subject right out of the gate. That was excellently done! Have a fish and chips in a warm beer to reward yourself, limey!!

In Ontario Canada we had Upper Canada Loyalist They were Americans that left the US and setup life in British North America

my family were in a Highland regiment in Nova Scotia

I could tell right away this was gonna be a good one! Here in the Carolinas, I grew up around lots of Tory stuff, including the Tory Oak in Wilkesboro, where they used to hang men that wouldn't join the Rebels. Also, glad to hear you are covering Ferguson. What a badass that guy was! People nowadays don't realize it was really a civil war, and people had to decide what to do in real time. I'm a proud American, but for me those Loyalists were heroes. Of course the winners write the history books.... Thanks for another great one, Chris!

That was great, Chris. Thanks for enlisting Todd. You have a great facility to discover a period, enlist an expert, and let in run. Much respect ❤

Excellent take on all this. My people got land in Kentucky after serving as Rebels

Watching this whilst travelling from Yorkshire to Wales. Excellent stuff. Thanks both.

There's an argument that the revolution was really the first American civil war. This was fascinating. Now living in Canada, I was aware that many American loyalists fought for the British and some of my associates are descended from those loyalists who came to Canada. I was not truly aware of how many there were and how fluid and complicated it was. The seizure of loyalist private property seems particularly agreigous in light of English common law property rights but I guess after a conflict these things are conveniently forgotten. Great video.

Shout-out to my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Harris! She made me absolutely fall in love with history via the way she taught the American revolution. We did standard stuff like vocab and dates and names, but what REALLY stuck out to like 10-year old me was- as mentioned here- a sort of reenactment. As we progressed through the lesson plan, she had us keep little journals, in *character* as soldiers OR civilians in the midst of the Revolution. So, our class had at any given time an assortment of loyalists and patriots, all with our own unique perspectives and understandings on the conflict, with like, a journal entry for summer and one for winter of each year of the revolution, or whatever- I don't remember exactly, but there were definitely multiple entries. It was so fun, and I completely forgot about it until just now!

You always produce quality posts Chris, thank you from an Aussie Veteran.

I thought I knew the Revolution pretty well, but there is so much untold about the Loyalists. All we are taught is school is Benedict Arnold. Please do mor of these stories. I have read some about this ,,,but this is great.

My 7th great-grandfather James Gorsline (aka Goslin or Gosling) was a Loyalist who refused to sign the Oath of Allegiance in Beekman, NY. He and several others were sent to Exeter, NH, but most of those returned to the Beekman area after a few months. He continued to talk smack about the independence cause until they tossed him onto a prison ship on the Esopus River for three weeks. After that, he emerged and agreed to sign. He never showed up on the court records after that and stayed in New York the rest of his life. His daughter Elizabeth married my 6th great-grandfather after the war-he had moved from Maine to New York to settle on his land grant for his seven years of service in the Continental Army. I wonder what James thought of his son-in-law?

Very entertaining & enjoyed Tom's insightful knowledge! Looking forward to the Tarleton video - another Liverpool connection was Robert Morris, "Financier of the Revolution" for the Continental Congress.

Brilliant listen, great guest Todd he was very informative and easy to communicate his points 👍

One of my ancestors was a loyalist. Two of his brothers were killed at King's Mountain.

Many thanks to you and yours. You have actually been in combat and your perspective and observations are more respectable. Good one.

The Loyalists are not forgotten in Canada

Fun fact, during the American Revolution the Jewish community in Britain created a prayer that pretty much asked for their brothers across the pond to get their heads back on straight & rejoin the empire as loyal subjects.

Fantastically viewable and the educational content was super , Todd’s knowledge , clear love of the subject and fluency of presentation made the 34 minutes just fly by , shall watch a few more times to absorb the huge mass of fascinating info , love your method of finding Experts and letting them do the Talking . 👏👏👍. Looking forward to the follow up episodes you promised 🙏👍

Love the jokes and humor! It makes a potentially firey topic (for those that only read the title before commenting) light-hearted and interesting. With all jokes aside, the Revolution was brutal when it came down to American vs American. No mercy. It was very much a civil war.

Excellent both of you. Nice see you Todd well done as always!!

Here is something that most people who haven't served in never think of: Soldiers and Sailors are not recruited from the political class. Those of us who end up as political veterans usually didn't get the political part until later in life. I served for four years, three of them at sea on a destroyer. And all that time, I do not recall having a single conversation with a shipmate about what Congress was doing. Young man join up for one purpose only: to keep men with guns out of their mother's backyard. They are going to join whichever side they think our defending their mother's backyard. And that's it. Union soldiers, Confederate soldiers, colonial soldiers, provincial soldiers...the vast majority of them had no deeper purpose than that when they picked a side. Yes, it is unthinkable today to think of a soldier switching sides. But you have to understand, we're never fighting in our homeland. That's true for America and England. None of our mother's backyards are in Kandahar. So no, that doesn't happen these days. But back then, when the war was here on our soil... I imagine it happened quite a bit.

Nice one Chris 👌🏻

Top notch, thanks Chris. Todd Braisted was a brilliantly knowledgeable guest too, fascinating stuff! Oh look, it's warm beer o'clock in Blighty. Wonder what I'm going to have for supper.....

I've heard 40% Loyalist 60 % Rebels.

God save the King -an American

Great stuff! Interesting, informative and looking forward to the future programs.

Couple of points. -Be careful when using the term "American". America was not yet a country so "American" referred to where you lived, not your Nationality. - The second is that prior to the Revolution, the primary role of the British Army in the Americas, was to defend the colonists, there. Those colonists who volunteered to serve were defending their own people and property more than tbey were serving the interests of the British government. - And a freebie, Revolutionary propaganda liked to focus on King George, but Britain had a Parliament and nothing could be done without the approval of Parliament and the funding that Parliament granted. G3 was not exactly a medieval despot. Our mutual ancestors executed Charles 1 and booted outJames 1 to make that clear.

Looking forward to this one. Some of my family were Loyalists. They had their property confiscated and spent some time in British North America. 🇬🇧

Nick from HistoryBuffs, in his 'The Patriot' review gave me (not British or American, directly) a little insight into the complexities of the American Revolution- far from simple binaries of good vs evil, in who the players were- & the idea of how many 'loyalists' there were...

Understandable as England continues to slowly change itself into George Orwell's Airstrip One. The 5 regiments of the American Establishment, unlike the provincial regiments, were equivalent to regulars.

They were called the ‘civil’ by the Founding Fathers during the War of Independence;

There is still a reserve regiment of the Canadian army called The "Queen's York Rangers (1st Americans)". Look them up.

Liked that one guys much appreciated

I really enjoyed this love to see more

I m also a Rev war reenactor and always point out it was a civil war in a revolution .

GREAT EPISODE.

Not bad Lobsterback! I always enjoy your content. Keep up the good work

Been a life -long U.K. Loyalist since 1968. Rather die than sell - out.

Great interview! The more I learn about the AWI the more I think I would have been a Loyalist, even though my ancestors fought and died for Washington.

Great video, and one of my favourite subjects!

Thanks some prominent American loyalists include Benjamin halowell a captain in the royal navy in the napoleonic war. Delancy who was killed at Waterloo. David Octerloney who defeated the Gurkhas.

Great video! I find this topic fascinating even as a proud American. Well done and good luck in coming to the US!

One of my favorite military history books “Rebels and Redcoats”. If you haven’t read it please do

Marvelous content. My Gx5 grandfather from South Carolina and his brothers fought in the Kings Rangers. His father came from Germany so it was natural that they were Loyalists. After all the English King was German! (Hanoverian). After the war they migrated into Georgia and Alabama. He was captured and was kept on a prison ship in Savannah, but survived and was fred when Archibald campbell took the city. He named his 1st born son after campbell and its still a common name in my family. He may have changed sides late in the war, according to his pension application when he was in his 90's, but I suspect that was fabrication

As the Gallic leader Brenus said: Woe to the vanquished.

The Canadian province New Brunswick (next to Maine which it had been connected to) was "created" to provide land for loyalists

Proud American 🇺🇸 that would have absolutely been a loyalist back in 1775!! I consider our two nations to be culturally synonymous.

My ancestors! God save the King and may Canada stay forever loyal.

Fantastic video as always! Eager for the next!

Good to see that so many colonials were not backstabbing, francophile turncoats. A mere 12 years after the end of the Seven Years War (French and Indian War being part it). After all that blood and treasure was spent saving America colonials from French domination, to then rebel and go cap in hand to the French absolutist monarchy of all people was a shameful betrayal of the men who died defending their (dare I say) freedom!

I am a bit surprised that there isn't a mention of Sir John Johnson and his family, their close connections with the Mohawk, due to his father marrying a high ranking Mohawk girl as well as the lead of the Indian Department and the raising of a regiment that he led was an important part of the New York Loyalist history and the early war.

My great-grandfather X 7 Thomas Robinson raised a 3,000 man Loyalist insurrection in Sussex County, Delaware that, unfortunately, never fully came to be, as it was put down by the rebels after they prevented them from garnering enough black powder. Robinson tried to raise an insurrection against the rebels, but ultimately failed, having had his property confiscated by the new government. Like so many other brave, loyal Americans, he fled to Nova Scotia, but came back in a few short years to find a completely changed country. He died shortly thereafter and was buried near Lewes, Delaware, in what is still today my mother’s family’s ancestral plot.

Making videos on American and British soldiers? Now that’s soldiering!

There is always two sides in the coin. Another top work mate, congrats, mr. Todd is a great communicator. Best regards bro.

Don't go to the US, come to the land of the really free, Australia

Good Americans = Canadians 😁

Frederick Robinson was a Virginian. He fought as part of the Loyal American Regiment. He would later serve in the 17th and 38th regiments. After the war he became a general. He later commanded a brigade in the 5th Division in Spain at Vittoria, Bidossa and San Sebastien. He later governed Tobago. He retired and settled in Brighton.

Both were patriots. God bless!!!

I was always wondering growing up . Thx for the history lesson

Allthough I am greatful to live in an independt country as a history buff it has always been interesting to learn the pionts of view from the Colonists on both sides. Of course most of us know one of the causes of the Revolutionary War of Indepence was taxation with repsentaion. The Loyalists might have believed it was thier duty to pay taxes to the English crown be and were not eager to take up arms against Red Coats from the UK just 12 years after fighting alongside them during the French and Indian wars. They saw them as comrades in arms and may have even had cousins and brothers among the Red Coats. And Americans would not technically be considered a separate nationality group until 1783 and even then America was a melting pot. Even coloinsts a lot of colonists born in America could not bring themslves to break away from British rule and culture so many surviving Loyalists went to English speaking pronvinces in Canada.

Chris you gone light the fire of some guys... 😅

Ha ha. Best to you 🫡 I'm visiting Camden, South Carolina this weekend to see the battlefield.

Daft question, I'm sure, but did people of the time consider themselves "American," or did that come later?

Nova Scotia in joke from the comedy Blackfly: I'm going to get 10 acres in beautiful Spryfield!

Read Kenneth Robert's novel "Oliver Wiswell."

Recruiting in Boston must have been not ideal 😂

Fort 96 in South Carolina got its name as was 96 miles to nearest town of Keowee.

😂😂0:47 As a retired U.S. Military, 3rd Gen. Finnish-American, who’s a total Anglophile, I totally dug this video. One of your most intriguing.

Loyalist have seemed to be traitors or bad guys. It really depends on the time, it seems that a lot of loyalist vs patriots, in my opinion had other issues. I think also there might have been more switching sides to avoid prisons, than has been reported. Also, I think their pocketbooks played a point in which side you were on. I think a lot of times there were old land claims etc., that the wounds never healed from, weather it was a feud of some kind or court ruling.

Many slaves escaped and joined the British in exchange for freedom for them and their families. After the war many went to Nova Scotia or England. Many later were settled in Sierra Leonie which is why the capital of that land is called Freetown.

yeh, that was a good one... more of this guy.. (Sibley - from Bradpole, Dorset - arrived Salem 1629, 2 forebears from Sutton in Learned's Regiment, later became 3rd Continental Infantry... subsequent forebear service in 42nd MA Vols in the war against slave states, and then my service... all Army Infantrymen...)

The British Prime Minister, Parliament, and The Crown treated British North America (Canada) with kid gloves in 1867, after learning bitter lessons from the American Revolutionary War. Had the British treated the American colonials with the same leniency as they did Canada, the 13 American colonies likely would have remained loyal. At the least there would not have been the critical number of American colonials to start a rebellion. The British learned the hard way that, "My way or the highway" is not always the best solution. The British learned that a large colony becoming independent was not fatal to the British Empire. Profitable trade commenced between Great Britain and the new United States. Thus, as the Canadians expressed their desire for independence, the British government and The Crown welcomed the request and held the door open for the new Canada.

I like tea better than coffee and i am an American.

Great video Christian

I had around 1/4 of my family back in the day fight for the British as Loyalists. I have no idea what happened to them after the American Revolution. I know a bunch of loyalists were repatriated to Canada. Does anyone know of any records of Loyalists resettling after the US was founded?

British Dragoon Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarlington wreaked such havoc in the American southern colonies that he caused the locals to coalesce into supporting the Revolution. After LTG Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, VA in 1781, Tarlington had to seek the protection of French military officers for protection against outraged Americans. Many years later, Banastre Tarlington achieved general rank. At the outset of the American War, known in the U.S. as, The War of 1812, General Tarlington requested he be given command of all British forces in North America. The British Prime Minister and the War Ministry considered his request before demurring. It was probably for the best. Tarlington had not been forgotten in the former American southern colonies. Tarlington's presence back in North America would have no doubt enraged the Americans and resulted into firming up American morale and patriotism in the War of 1812.

Loyalist private soldiers in ranger regiments were paid two shillings per day, double what British soldiers got.If they joined a company that required fluency in an Iroquois language, they received four shillings per day.

Great episode

I used to watch your early Zulu War videos and the American War of Independence videos caught my eye back to your channel. Anything on the AWI or War of 1812 would be very much welcomed here is the US market. Good job.

unfathomably based title and video topic

Great interview. God there's so much more to say though.