Thomas Jefferson claimed in 1774 that "the British Parliament has no right to exercise authority over us"
Source: Library of Congress, A summary view of the rights of British America...
Thomas Jefferson claimed in 1774 that "the British Parliament has no right to exercise authority over us"
Source: Library of Congress, A summary view of the rights of British America...
Most members of the House of Burgesses and the Governor's Council became radicalized between passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 and the First Virginia Convention in 1774. The elite clique of white men who controlled the economy and enjoyed high social status in the colony risked their power and position to rebel against the authority and military capacity of Great Britain.
Americans were loyal supporters of the British empire at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. Over the next dozen years, leaders developed a strong perception of unfair treatment by British officials. Americans came to believe that London officials planned to drain the wealth of Virginia, Massachusetts, and the other colonies to enhance the standard of living across the Atlantic Ocean. If the concerns of the colonists would be ignored, then separation from Great Britain would be necessary.
The closure of the port of Boston and other Intolerable Acts demonstrated that Great Britain was not willing to accommodate the special interests of the American colonies.
In 1774, after Lord Dunmore had dissolved the House of Burgesses and an extra-legal convention was preparing to appoint Virginia's representatives to a Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson sent his ideas to the meeting, bolding saying it was time to renounce the authority of Parliament. He also blamed King George III for the conflict, whereas other politicians were limiting the blame to Parliament and trying to gain the support of the king.
Jefferson was delayed in arriving due to a bout with dysentery, and a majority of the convention delegates were unwilling to approve what he proposed. However, some of them raised the money among themselves and funded publication of A Summary View of the Rights of British America anonymously.
When the Second Continental Congress needed someone to draft a statement about why he colonies were declaring independence, Jefferson's pamphlet from two years earlier was a clear guide for what needed to be said.
From a political perspective, the American Revolution was won with pamphlets before first shot was fired in 1775. The shooting that extended from Lexington/Concord until Yorktown determined that only one rebellion would be required to obtain independence.
In the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the revolutionaries pledged:1
Not everyone felt that revolution was an appropriate solution to the political disputes between officials in the colonies and in London. The wealthiest colonists saw their opportunity to acquire even more land and to increase commercial profits being constrained by British policy. However, most colonists were not directly threatened economically.
The outbreak of fighting in 1775 was followed by a civil war. As in all such wars, "average" people who just wanted to be left alone were forced to choose sides or flee.
Scottish storekeepers throughout the colony, but especially in Norfolk, recognized that they depended upon support from the Crown in order to stay in business. Rather than ally with rebels, the storekeepers chose to close down their businesses and migrate home.
Lord Fairfax in Northern Virginia did not express support for the American Revolution and never swore an oath of allegiance to Virginia, but he also chose to stay on the sidelines and live quietly in what is now Clarke County. He was protected from physical harm by his close connection with George Washington, but the Virginia Act of 1779 confiscated all of the Fairfax Grant land which had not been sold.
Lawsuits over whether confiscation was legal continued until 1816.
Virginia courts ruled that the land confiscation was legal; according to state law, Lord Fairfax's heirs did not inherit his unsold land after he died in 1781. The US Supreme Court ruled in the 1813 Fairfax’s Devisee v. Hunter’s Lessee decision that the 1783 Treaty of Paris (1783) and the 1785 Jay’s Treaty, ratified by the US Senate, were the supreme law of the land and protected the rights of Fairfax's heirs.
In 1815, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in Hunter v. Martin that the US Supreme Court had no authority to interfere with a state court decision. The reasoning assumed state courts were sovereign in interpreting state law, and Federal courts were sovereign in interpreting Federal law - but with equal authority, neither court could overrule decisions made by the other.
The US Supreme Court rejected that perspective, establishing a fundamental principle in constitutional law. The US Supreme Court decided in the 1816 Martin v. Hunter's Lessee case that Federal courts had the power to overrule decisions by state courts, but did grant title of the land to Virginia.2
A few key leaders in the Virginia gentry, with a strong support for traditional behavior and with economic advantages granted by the existing system of government, remained loyal to King George III. Some moved to London. Others managed to stay in Virginia without committing to support revolution, and some even joined the British military forces.
A significant part of the white farmers who did not belong to the gentry were unwilling to enlist in the Continental Army and evaded militia service, as they recognized another "rich man's war but a poor man's fight." Quakers chose to suffer economic punishment from Virginia county governments in order to avoid providing militia enlistees or supplies for war. Enslaved people scaped to British warships or armies when the opportunity presented itself, choosing actual liberty rather than support a change in regime leadership that claimed to fight for liberty - but only for whites.
In late 1775, Lord Dunmore raised the Queen's Own Loyal Virginia Regiment. Loyalist Virginia whites fought in it for a year, until Dunmore sailed out of the Chesapeake Bay in 1776 and the regiment was incorporated into the Queen's American Rangers.
Over a century ago, historian Carl Becker highlighted that the American Revolution involved more than a war to end the role of Parliament and the King of England in control of the colonies. The was was a fight for home rule, but also a fight to determine who would rule at home once the colonies gained their independence.
Henry Lee II, known as "Lighthorse Harry Lee," witnessed brutal atrocities by between loyalists and rebels in the Carolinas in 1781. The experience shaped his political philosophy and made hu=im as Federalist in support of a strong national government. Lee struggled to prevent his militia from executing loyalists who had surrendered. Despite his efforts, he wrote a fellow general that:3
an English cartoon showed rebellious colonists (as Native Americans) murdering six loyalists
Source: Library of Congress, The savages let loose, or The cruel fate of the Loyalists (by William Humphrey, 1783)
Enslaved people in Virginia viewed the revolution though their own unique lens. The white gentry claimed that a war was necessary to ensure no taxation without representation, but the rebel leaders had no intention to grant political or social freedoms to their "property." The best path for the enslaved to get freedom and the opportunity for a better standard of living was for the British to win the war; "freedom wore a red coat."
At the beginning of military conflict, Lord Dunmore sought to recruit the men among the 400,000 enslaved Virginians to join his new Ethiopian Regiment. The colonial governor created racially-separate military forces because he assumed few white Loyalists would be willing to serve alongside men who had just escaped from slavery.
When Lord Cornwallis marched through Virginia in 1781 before ending up at Yorktown, enslaved men and women provided intelligence about available supplies and served as guides through the unmapped areas. Cornwallis's troops took advantage of the information provided to decide where to camp, and how to move swiftly along country roads.
The British troops encouraged the enslaved people on plantations to run away and follow the army. The soldiers put some of the former enslaved people to work, using them as personal servants as well as laborers. Black Virginians provided support to the army that was most likely to provide them freedom.
The thousands who fled Virginia plantations joined with British and German troops who seized supplies while on the march. The pillaging at small farms and large plantations caused economic damage to the rebel leaders, and weakened the ability of the Marquis de Lafayette and General "Mad Anthony" Wayne to obtain food, horses, and other supplies for the American forces. The British fortifications at Yorktown were dug largely by Virginians who had fled their white masters.4
formerly enslaved Virginians who desired a British victory dug many of Lord Cornwallis' fortifications at Yorktown
Source: National Park Service, British Artillery Position (painting by Sidney E. King)
Attitudes were divided when fighting began, and even at the end. The military and political victory was complete after the Treaty of Paris. There was no significant effort by Americans after 1783 to rejoin the British Empire.
Those who strongly supported remaining a part of the British empire after 1783 had to move to colonies of Canada, Bermuda and Caribbean islands or cross the Atlantic Ocean to Great Britain. Some loyalists chose to stay in Virginia, and others eventually returned.
After the American Revolution, some Loyalists who had fled Virginia sought to return. In a debate at the General Assembly Patrick Henry strongly encouraged increasing the state's population through immigration and allowing the Loyalists to move back to Virginia. New residents would spur economic growth by bringing money to invest, and by purchasing goods and services in the state. As portrayed in an 1881 biography by William Wirt, Henry pontificated:5
However, Henry opposed proposals to return assets confiscated from the Loyalists.
Loyalists who fled Virginia had their property confiscated
Source: Howard Pyle blog, Tory Refugees on their way to Canada (by Howard Pyle, 1901)
Source: Esoteric History, America's Loyalists: Where Did They Go After The War?