United Empire Loyalist

Depiction of Loyalist refugees on their way to the Canadas during the American Revolution.

Following the end of the American Revolutionary War and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, both Loyalist soldiers and civilians were evacuated from New York City, most heading for Canada. Many Loyalists had already migrated to Canada, especially from New York and northern New England, where violence against them had increased during the war.

The Crown-allotted land in Canada was sometimes allotted according to which Loyalist regiment a man had fought in. This Loyalist resettlement was critical to the development of present-day Ontario, and some 10,000 refugees went to Quebec (including the Eastern Townships and modern-day Ontario). But Nova Scotia (including modern-day New Brunswick) received three times that number: about 35,000–40,000 Loyalist refugees.[5]

An unknown but substantial number of individuals did not stay; they eventually returned to the United States. As some families split in their loyalties during the war years, many Loyalists in Canada continued to maintain close ties with relatives in the United States. They conducted commerce across the border with little regard to British trade laws.[6] In the 1790s, the offer of land and low taxes, which were one-quarter those in America, for allegiance by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe resulted in the arrival of 30,000 Americans often referred to as Late Loyalists. By the outbreak of the War of 1812, of the 110,000 inhabitants of Upper Canada, 20,000 were the initial Loyalists, 60,000 were later American immigrants and their descendants, and 30,000 were immigrants from the UK, their descendants or from the Old Province of Quebec. The later arrival of many of the inhabitants of Upper Canada suggests that land was the main reason for immigration.

The Coming of the Loyalists by Henry Sandham, showing a romanticised view of the Loyalists' arrival in New Brunswick.

The arrival of the Loyalists after the Revolutionary War led to the division of Canada into the provinces of Upper Canada (what is now southern Ontario) and Lower Canada (today's southern Quebec). They arrived and were largely settled in groups by ethnicity and religion. Many soldiers settled with others of the regiments they had served with.[7] The settlers came from every social class and all thirteen colonies, unlike the depiction of them in the Sandham painting which suggests the arrivals were well-dressed upper-class immigrants.

Loyalists soon petitioned the government to be allowed to use the British legal system, which they were accustomed to in the American colonies, rather than the French system. Great Britain had maintained the French legal system and allowed freedom of religion after taking over the former French colony with the defeat of France in the Seven Years' War. With the creation of Upper and Lower Canada, most Loyalists in the west could live under British laws and institutions. The predominantly ethnic French population of Lower Canada, who were still French-speaking, could maintain their familiar French civil law and Catholic religion.[7]

Realizing the importance of some type of recognition, on 9 November 1789, Lord Dorchester, the governor of Quebec and Governor General of British North America, declared "that it was his Wish to put the mark of Honour upon the Families who had adhered to the Unity of the Empire". As a result of Dorchester's statement, the printed militia rolls carried the notation:

Those Loyalists who have adhered to the Unity of the Empire, and joined the Royal Standard before the Treaty of Separation in the year 1783, and all their Children and their Descendants by either sex, are to be distinguished by the following Capitals, affixed to their names: UE or U.E. Alluding to their great principle The Unity of the Empire.

Because most of the nations of the Iroquois had allied with the British, which had ceded their lands to the United States, thousands of Iroquois and other pro-British Native Americans were expelled from New York and other states. They were also resettled in Canada. Many of the Iroquois, led by Joseph Brant Thayendenegea, settled at Six Nations of the Grand River, the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. A smaller group of Iroquois led by Captain John Deserontyon Odeserundiye, settled on the shores of the Bay of Quinte in modern-day southeastern Ontario.[8]

A Black Loyalist wood cutter at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, in 1788.

The government settled some 3,500 Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but they faced discrimination and the same inadequate support that all Loyalists experienced.[9] Delays in making land grants, but mostly the willingness of the blacks to under-cut their fellow Loyalists and hire themselves out to the few available jobs at a lower wage aggravated racist tensions in Shelburne. Mobs of white Loyalists attacked Black Loyalists in the Shelburne Riots in July 1784, Canada's first so-called "race" riot.[10] The government was slow to survey the land of Black Loyalists (which meant they could not settle); it was also discriminatory in granting them smaller, poorer, and more remote lands than those of white settlers; not counting those Loyalists who were resettled in what would become Upper Canada, in general, or around the Bay of Quinte, in specific. This increased their difficulties in becoming established.[11] The majority of Black Loyalists in Canada were refugees from the American South; they suffered from this discrimination and the harsh winters.

When Great Britain set up the colony of Sierra Leone in Africa, nearly 1300 Black Loyalists emigrated there in 1792 for the promise of self-government. And so 2,200 remained. The Black Loyalists that left established Freetown in Sierra Leone. Well into the 20th century, together with other early settlers from Jamaica and slaves liberated from illegal slave ships, and despite vicious attacks from the indigenous peoples that nearly ended the Maroon colony, they and their descendants dominated the culture, economy and government of Sierra Leone.[12]

Numerous Loyalists had been forced to abandon substantial amounts of property in the United States. Britain sought restoration or compensation for this lost property from the United States, which was a major issue during the negotiation of the Jay Treaty in 1795. Negotiations settled on the concept of the United States negotiators "advising" the U.S. Congress to provide restitution. For the British, this concept carried significant legal weight, far more than it did to the Americans; the U.S. Congress declined to accept the advice.

The Act Against Slavery, 1793, an anti-slavery act passed in Upper Canada. The Act was created partially in response to Loyalist refugees who brought slaves with them.

Slave-owning Loyalists from across the former Thirteen Colonies brought their slaves with them to Canada, as the practice was still legal there. They took a total of about 2,000 slaves to British North America: 500 in Upper Canada (Ontario), 300 in Lower Canada (Quebec), and 1,200 in the Maritime colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The presence and condition of slaves in the Maritimes would become a particular issue. They constituted a larger portion of the population, but it was not an area of plantation agriculture.

The settlers eventually freed many of these slaves. Together with the free Black Loyalists, many chose to go to Sierra Leone in 1792 and following years, seeking a chance for self-government. Meanwhile, the British Parliament passed an imperial law in 1790 that assured prospective immigrants to Canada that they could retain their slaves as property. In 1793, an anti-slavery law was passed, in the 1st Parliament of Upper Canada. The Act Against Slavery banned the importation of slaves into the colony, and mandated the emancipation of all children born henceforth to female slaves upon reaching the age of 25. The Act was partially introduced due to the influx of the number of slaves brought by Loyalist refugees to Upper Canada.[13] The slave trade was abolished across the British Empire in 1807. The institution of slavery was abolished Empire-wide by 1834 (except in India, where it was considered an indigenous institution).

Depiction of Glengarry Light Infantry's charge across a frozen river during the Battle of Ogdensburg. The unit's membership was restricted to Loyalist and British settlers.

From 1812 to 1815, the United States and the United Kingdom were engaged in a conflict known as the War of 1812. On 18 June 1812, US President James Madison signed the declaration of war into law, after receiving heavy pressure from the War Hawks in Congress.

By 1812, Upper Canada had been settled mostly by Revolution-era Loyalists from the United States (United Empire Loyalists) and postwar American and British immigrants. The Canadas were thinly populated and only lightly defended by the British Army and the sedentary units of the Canadian Militia. American leaders assumed that Canada could be easily overrun, with former president Thomas Jefferson optimistically describing the potential conquest of Canada as "a matter of marching".[14] Many Loyalist Americans had migrated to Upper Canada after the Revolutionary War. However, there was also a significant number of non-Loyalist American settlers in the area due to the offer of land grants to immigrants. The Americans assumed the latter population would favour the American cause, but they did not. Although the population of Upper Canada included recent settlers from the United States who had no obvious loyalties to the Crown, the American forces found strong opposition from settlers during the War of 1812.[15][16]

A number of loyalists served as fencibles, provincial regulars, in the Provincial Marine, or with the sedentary militia. With the successful defence of the Canadian colonies from American invasion, the War of 1812 is seen by Loyalists as a victory.[17] After the war, the British government transported to New Brunswick and settled about 400 of 3,000 former slaves from the United States whom they freed during and after the war. It had fulfilled its promise to them of freedom if they left Patriot slaveholders and fought with the British. Enslaved African Americans risked considerable danger by crossing to British lines to achieve freedom.[18]

While the honorific "United Empire Loyalist" is not part of the official Canadian honours system, modern-day descendants of Loyalist refugees may employ it, sometimes using "U.E." as postnominal letters. The practice, however, is uncommon today, even in original Loyalist strongholds like southeastern Ontario. Historians and genealogists use it extensively as a shorthand for identifying the ancestry of particular families.

Gathering for the Loyalist Centennial Parade in Saint John, New Brunswick, in 1883.

The influence of the Loyalists on the evolution of Canada remains evident. Their ties with Britain and antipathy to the United States provided the strength needed to keep Canada independent and distinct in North America. The Loyalists' basic distrust of republicanism and "mob rule" influenced Canada's gradual, "paper-strewn" path to independence. The new British North American provinces of Upper Canada (the forerunner of Ontario) and New Brunswick were created as places of refuge for the United Empire Loyalists. The mottoes of the two provinces reflect this history: Ontario's, also found on its coat of arms, is Ut incepit fidelis sic permanet ("Loyal she began, loyal she remains"); New Brunswick's, Spem Reduxit ("Hope restored").

The word "Loyalist" appears frequently in school, street, and business names in such Loyalist-settled communities as Belleville, Ontario. The nearby city of Kingston, established as a Loyalist stronghold, was named in honour of King George III. And on the outskirts of that city is a township simply named "Loyalist".

Canada's 2021 Census estimates a population of 10,015 who identify as having United Empire Loyalist origins, based on a 25% sample.[19]

On 1 July 1934, Royal Mail Canada issued "United Empire Loyalists, 1776–1784" designed by Robert Bruce McCracken based on Sydney March's sculpture United Empire Loyalists. The 10-cent stamps are perforated 11 and were printed by the British American Bank Note Company.[20]

In 1996, Canadian politicians Peter Milliken (a descendant of American Loyalists) and John Godfrey sponsored the Godfrey–Milliken Bill, which would have entitled Loyalist descendants to reclaim ancestral property in the United States which had been confiscated during the American Revolution. The bill, which did not pass the House of Commons, was intended primarily as a satirical response to the contemporaneous American Helms–Burton Act.[21]

The Loyalist Flag flies at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building on UEL Day

In 1997, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed a bill declaring 19 June, "United Empire Loyalist Day" in Ontario. United Empire Loyalist Day is also celebrated on the same day in Saskatchewan, on 18 May in New Brunswick and on 22 July in British Columbia.

• Barkley, Murray. "The Loyalist Tradition in New Brunswick: the Growth and Evolution of an Historical Myth, 1825–1914." Acadiensis 4#2 (1975): 3–45. online
• Bell, David VJ. "The Loyalist Tradition in Canada." Journal of Canadian Studies 5#2 (1970): 22+
• Knowles, Norman James. Inventing the Loyalists: The Ontario Loyalist Tradition and the Creation of Usable Pasts (University of Toronto Press, 1997).
• Ranlet, Philip. "How Many American Loyalists Left the United States?." Historian 76.2 (2014): 278–307.
• Upton, L.F.S. ed. The United Empire Loyalists: Men and Myths (The Copp Publishing Company, 1967), Excerpts from historians and from primary sources

• Talman, James ed. Loyalist Narratives from Upper Canada. Toronto: Champlain Society, 1946.
• "Letter, Benjamin Franklin to Baron Francis Maseres, June 26, 1785"
• Gray, Rev. J. W. D. A Sermon, Preached at Trinity Church, in the parish of St. John, N. B., on 8 December 1857, by the Rev. J. W. D. Gray, D.D., and Designed to Recommend the Principles of the Loyalists of 1783. Saint John, New Brunswick: J. & A. McMillan, Printers, 1857. 15 pp. Internet Archive pdf; title incorrectly gives the year as 1847.