Dishonored Americans: The Political Death of Loyalists in Revolutionary America

The Revolutionary Age

by Timothy Compeau

With the final words of the Declaration of Independence, the signatories famously pledged to one another their lives, their fortunes, and their "sacred Honor." But what about those who made the opposite choice? By looking through the analytical lens of honor culture, Dishonored Americans offers an innovative assessment of the experience of Americans who made the fateful decision to remain loyal to the British Crown during and after the Revolution. Loyalists, as Timothy Compeau explains, suffered a "political death" at the hands of American Patriots. A term drawn from eighteenth-century sources, ‘political death’ encompassed the legal punishments and ritualized dishonors Patriots used to defeat Loyalist public figures and discredit their counter-revolutionary vision for America. By highlighting this dynamic, Compeau makes a significant intervention in the long-standing debate over the social and cultural factors that motivated colonial Americans to choose sides in the conflict, narrating in compelling detail the severe consequences for once-respected gentlemen who were stripped of their rights, privileges, and power in Revolutionary America.

270 pages, Paperback

Published November 29, 2023

Reviews

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book, but it didn't stick with me all that much. It's a look at loyalists to England in the colonies during the American Revolution. For them, honor was a key concept, and slights to their honor were keenly felt. Well, slights is what they got, and boy howdy did they ever. They were effectively removed from the political community - the "political death" of the subtitle. Some were jailed. Some fled. Some stayed. Some who fled came back with the British and tried to get some revenge during occassional British raids and campaigns. After the Revolution, some stayed away while others gradually trickled back, and were largely reincorporated into the community. Right after the war, that wasn't happening, but as time went on it did.

I thought the book was stronger on discussing the experience of loyalists than on what the concept of honor meant in their experiences.

[Ben Jonas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book effectively proves that the Patriots enacted the political death of Loyalists to neutralize them during the American Revolution. However, Compeau fails to address the experiences of lower-class loyalists. While the focus is on honor culture, loyalism spanned all levels of colonial society. It is important to note that honor culture was more important to the elites than to the lower class. However, a better view of how the political death of Loyalists affected lower classes would solidify his argument by including all Loyalists, making the political death an issue for every Loyalists, not just the elite. Overall, the book successfully shows how the political death of Loyalists was a deliberate strategy employed by Patriots to neutralize Loyalists during the American Revolution.

[Diane Faris · Rating 4 out of 5]

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