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Remember, officers and soldiers, that you are free men, fighting for the blessings of liberty that slavery will be your portion if you do not acquit yourselves like men. Connolly was imprisoned for the remainder of the American Revolution.[1]. 'Tis not the affair of a City, a County, a Province, or a Kingdom; but of a Continent of at least one-eighth part of the habitable Globe. Dont fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here. Often overlooked are the fence-sitters who made up the largest group. An estimated 12,000 slaves of African descent known as Black Loyalists took up arms for the British during the Revolutionary War and tens of thousands of others risked their lives to seek freedom behind the British lines. Show your pride in battlefield preservation by shopping in our store. (6pp.). Famously, an enslaved man named James Armistead infiltrated Cornwallis camp at Yorktown and communicated with the Marquis de Lafayette. Gov. Loyalists, Fence-sitters, and Patriots [ushistory.org] . Choosing Sides: Loyalist vs. Patriot - National Park But when Colonial America 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. "2 Presented here are selections by and about Loyalists that illustrate this political maelstrom and the wrenching personal decisions required of Americans loyal to Britain and/or unwilling to abandon reconciliation and adopt separation. What range of certainty and ambivalence? How did colonists express and debate their differing opinions? To Cooper, an English-born Anglican clergyman and president of Kings College (Columbia University) in New York City, the colonists were led astray by proud ignorant fanatics or, as he calls them in his poem, "this vagrant Crew / Whose wretched Jargon, crude and new / Whose Impudence and Lies delude / The harmless, ign'rant Multitude." WebWhether fighting for the British cause or for the American cause, African Americans were fighting for freedom. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The American Revolution (1765-1791 time period, with official war dates between 1775 and 1783) made colonists choose sides between groups called Loyalists or Patriots.