A CIVIL WAR
What do you say as a Loyalist historian and presenter about United Empire Loyalists to an audience of Americans? I was asked during the past summer to make a presentation this month, in January, to a Genealogical Society in Washington State. The American Revolution was, in some ways, a Civil War. At the start of the conflict, both sides were British subjects. It divided not just communities, neighbours and friends in the American colonies but families. In the Battle of Kings Mountain the forces on both sides were almost entirely American born. Benjamin Franklin is known as a leading Patriot, however, his son William Franklin was an ardent Loyalist. Benjamin signed the Declaration of Independence . His son William was the last Royal Governor of New Jersey (1763 - 1776) and was imprisoned by Patriots. Another prominent Patriot, General John Stark had an older brother, William, who was a Loyalist. ...