MAYA JASANOFF
Liberty’s Exiles
The Loss of America and the Remaking of the British Empire
Dedication
In memory of Kamala Sen (1914–2005) and
Edith Jasanoff (1913–2007),
emigrants and storytellers
Contents
Introduction: The Spirit of 1783
Chapter Two - An Unsettling Peace
Chapter Three - A New World Disorder
Chapter Four - The Heart of Empire
Chapter Five - A World in the Wilderness
Chapter Seven - Islands in a Storm
Chapter Ten - Empires of Liberty
Conclusion: Losers and Founders
Appendix: Measuring the Exodus
List of Maps
The Loyalist Diaspora
The Loyalists’ North America
The Thirteen Colonies in 1776
The Battle of Yorktown
The Southern Colonies During the War
North America After the Peace of Paris
The British Isles
The Maritimes After the Loyalist Influx
Port Roseway, Nova Scotia
Loyalist Settlements on the Saint John River
The Bahamas and the Coast of East Florida
Jamaica
Freetown and the Mouth of the Sierra Leone River
North America in the War of 1812
Northern India
Cast of Characters
(in order of appearance)
BEVERLEY ROBINSON AND FAMILY
A native Virginian, Beverley Robinson (1722–1792) moved to New York and married the wealthy heiress Susanna Philipse in 1748. He raised the Loyal American Regiment in 1777. After the evacuation of New York, Robinson settled in England, where he died in 1792. His widow and two daughters, Susan and Joanna, remained in England until their deaths. His five sons enjoyed profitable careers in different parts of the British Empire. The eldest, beverley robinson jr. (1754–1816), lieutenant colonel of the Loyal American Regiment, settled outside Fredericton in 1787 and became a member of the New Brunswick provincial elite. frederick philipse “phil” robinson (1763–1852) was a career soldier who attained considerable prominence as a general in the Peninsular War and War of 1812, for which services he earned a knighthood. At the time of his death, General Robinson was the “grandfather” of the British army, the longest-serving officer on its books. The youngest son, WILLIAM HENRY ROBINSON (1765–1836), distinguished himself in the British army’s commissariat department, for which he also received a knighthood. He married Catherine Skinner, daughter of loyalist general Cortlandt Skinner, and sister of Maria Skinner Nugent.
JOSEPH BRANT (THAYENDANEGEA) (1743–1807)
As a teenager in colonial New York, the Mohawk Indian Joseph Brant—or Thayendanegea in Mohawk—fell under the patronage of British superintendent of Indian affairs Sir William Johnson, who had married Brant’s elder sister molly (ca. 1736–1796). Brant was educated at Wheelock’s Indian school in Connecticut, and fought for the British in both the Seven Years’ War and Pontiac’s War. During the American Revolution, Joseph and Molly Brant helped recruit Iroquois to the British cause. In 1783 Brant initiated the resettlement of dislocated Mohawks in Canada. From his new home on the Grand River (today’s Brantford, Ontario), Brant tried to reunite Iroquois nations divided by the