The Wrong Side of History: Loyalists in the American Revolution

During the American Revolution the Americans who rejected independence and who fought to keep the colonies safely within the bosom of the British Empire lost almost everything when the patriots declared victory at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. History quickly lost sight of them in the years afterwards and looking back now, it’s hard to understand why so many ordinary Americans were actually bitterly opposed to the break with Britain and the birth of a new nation. Join University of Maryland historian and author Richard Bell as he takes us back in time to examine the American Revolution from their perspective. Focusing on individuals with compelling personal stories, Bell challenges deep-rooted stereotypes of loyalists as sycophantic, cowardly, and selfish persons of means and demonstrates that to understand who the loyalists were, and what they experienced, is to better understand the stakes of the entire American Revolution.