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Loyalists were colonists in the Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War, often referred to as Tories, [1] [2] Royalists, or King's Men at the time. They were opposed by the Patriots or Whigs, who supported the revolution, and considered them "persons inimical to the liberties of America."
Although the Whig Party adopted its name from its British counterpart, the term "Tories" had already completely fallen out of favour in the US. During the American Civil War , Confederate forces commonly referred to Southern Unionists as Tories , drawing a parallel with the Tories of the American Revolutionary War.
After the American Revolutionary War began the year before, in 1775, many patriots assimilated into the Continental Army, which was commanded by George Washington and which secured victory against the British Army, leading the British to acknowledge the sovereign independence of the colonies, reflected in the Treaty of Paris, which led to the ...
The Patriot Whigs, later the Patriot Party, were a group within the Whig Party in Great Britain from 1725 to 1803. The group was formed in opposition to the government of Robert Walpole in the House of Commons in 1725, when William Pulteney (later 1st Earl of Bath) and seventeen other Whigs joined with the Tory Party in attacks against the ministry.
The longer the Revolutionary War went on, the more fluid and dynamic the "Patriot" and "Loyalist" categories became; and the larger the population became that did not fit neatly into either camp. [3] It is estimated that between 20 and 45% of the population were somewhere in the middle as "Trimmers' or neutrals who bent with the wind.
William saw that the Tories were generally friendlier to royal authority than the Whigs and he employed both groups in his government. His early ministry was largely Tory, but gradually the government came to be dominated by the so-called Junto Whigs, a group of younger Whig politicians who led a tightly organised political grouping. The ...
On 8 June 1780, a small body of Whig militia led by Colonel William Bratton surprised a gathering point of Tory militia at Mobley's Meeting House, about 6 miles (9.7 km) west of present-day Winnsboro. Many of the Tories tried to escape by descending a steep embankment; this attempt led to more casualties than were caused by the actual firefight.
Wyndham's death in 1740 led to the breakdown of the coalition between the Tories and opposition Whigs. An opposition Whig motion for Walpole's dismissal was defeated by 290 to 106, with many Tories abstaining. [34] At the general election of 1741, there were 136 Tories elected. [35]