 Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain in the Year 1783. The engraving depicts Loyalists seeking aid fromBritannia following theirexpulsion from the United States. | |
| Abbreviation | UEL |
|---|---|
| Formation | 9 November 1789; 236 years ago (1789-11-09)[note 1] |
| Purpose | Honorific title |
| Origins | Loyalists |
Region served | British Empire,Canada |
United Empire Loyalist (UEL; or simplyLoyalist) is an honorific title which was first given bythe 1st Lord Dorchester, thegovernor ofQuebec andgovernor general ofthe Canadas, toAmerican Loyalists who resettled inBritish North America[1] during or after theAmerican Revolution. At that time, thedemonymCanadian orCanadien was used by the descendants ofNew France settlers inhabiting theProvince of Quebec.[2]
They settled primarily inNova Scotia and the Province of Quebec. The influx of loyalist settlers resulted in the creation of several new colonies. In 1784,New Brunswick was partitioned from the Colony of Nova Scotia after significant loyalist resettlement around theBay of Fundy.[3][4] The influx of loyalist refugees also resulted in the Province of Quebec's division intoLower Canada (present-dayQuebec), andUpper Canada (present-dayOntario) in 1791. The Crown gave them land grants of one lot. One lot consisted of 200 acres (81 ha) per person to encourage their resettlement, as the Government wanted to develop the frontier of Upper Canada. This resettlement added manyEnglish speakers to the Canadian population. It was the beginning of new waves of immigration that established a predominantlyAnglo-Canadian population in the futureCanada both west and east of themodern Quebec border.
Following the end of theAmerican Revolutionary War and the signing of theTreaty 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 wassometimes 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]
Many of these loyalist immigrants did not stay in Canada; they eventually returned to the United States. Some families were split in their loyalties during the war years. Many Loyalists in Canada maintained ties with relatives in the United States. They conducted commerce across the border with little regard to British trade laws.[6] In the 1790s, Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe's offer of land and low taxes, which were one-quarter the level of those in the U.S., in exchange for allegiance 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 U.S. immigrants and their descendants, and 30,000 were UK immigrants and their descendants, or immigrants from theOld Province of Quebec. The later movement of many to Upper Canada suggests that land was the main reason for immigration.
The arrival of the Loyalists after the Revolutionary War led to the division of Canada into the provinces ofUpper Canada (what is now southernOntario) andLower Canada (today's southernQuebec). They arrived and were largely settled in groups byethnicity 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.[citation needed]
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 theSeven 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 andGovernor 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 theRoyal 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-BritishNative Americans were expelled from New York and other states. They were also resettled in Canada. Many of theIroquois, led byJoseph BrantThayendenegea, settled atSix Nations of the Grand River, the largestFirst Nationsreserve in Canada. A smaller group of Iroquois led by CaptainJohn DeserontyonOdeserundiye, settled on the shores of the Bay of Quinte in modern-day southeastern Ontario.[8]
The government settled some 3,500Black 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 theShelburne 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 ofSierra Leone in Africa, nearly 1,300 Black Loyalists emigrated there in 1792 for the promise of self-government. And so 2,200 remained. The Black Loyalists that left establishedFreetown in Sierra Leone. Well into the 20th century, together with other early settlers fromJamaica 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 theJay Treaty in 1795. Negotiations settled on the concept of the United States negotiators "advising" theU.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.[citation needed]
Slave-owning Loyalists from across the formerThirteen Colonies brought their slaves with them to Canada, as the practice was stilllegal 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, theBritish Parliament passed theSettlers in American Colonies Act 1790 (30 Geo. 3. c. 27) that assured prospective immigrants to Canada that they could retain their slaves as property. In 1793, an anti-slavery law was passed, in the1st Parliament of Upper Canada. TheAct Against Slavery banned the importation of slaves into the colony, and mandated theemancipation 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 wasabolished across the British Empire in 1807. The institution of slavery was abolished Empire-wide by 1834 (except inIndia, where it wasconsidered an indigenous institution).
From 1812 to 1815, the United States and the United Kingdom were engaged in a conflict known as theWar of 1812. On 18 June 1812, US PresidentJames Madison signed thedeclaration of war into law, after receiving heavy pressure from theWar 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 theBritish Army and the sedentary units of theCanadian Militia. American leaders assumed that Canada could be easily overrun, with former presidentThomas 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 asfencibles, provincial regulars, in theProvincial 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 thehonorific "United Empire Loyalist" is not part of the officialCanadian honours system, modern-day descendants of Loyalistrefugees may employ it, sometimes using "U.E." aspostnominal 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.[citation needed]
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 ofrepublicanism and "mob rule" influenced Canada's gradual, "paper-strewn" path to independence. The new British North American provinces ofUpper Canada (the forerunner of Ontario) andNew 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, isUt 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 asBelleville, Ontario. The nearby city ofKingston, established as a Loyalist stronghold, was named in honour ofKing George III. And on the outskirts of that city is atownship simply named "Loyalist".
Canada's2021 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 onSydney March's sculptureUnited Empire Loyalists.[20]
In 1996, Canadian politiciansPeter Milliken (a descendant of American Loyalists) andJohn Godfrey sponsored theGodfrey–Milliken Bill, which would have entitled Loyalist descendants to reclaim ancestral property in the United States which had been confiscated during theAmerican Revolution. The bill, which did not pass theHouse of Commons, was intended primarily as a satirical response to the contemporaneous AmericanHelms–Burton Act.[21]
In 1997, theLegislative Assembly of Ontario passed a bill declaring 19 June, "United Empire Loyalist Day" inOntario. United Empire Loyalist Day is also celebrated on the same day inSaskatchewan, on 18 May inNew Brunswick and on 22 July inBritish Columbia.
The Loyalists paid attention to their history developing an idealized image of themselves in which they took great pride. In 1898, Henry Coyne provided a glowing depiction:
The Loyalists, to a considerable extent, were the very cream of the population of the Thirteen Colonies. They represented in very large measure the learning, the piety, the gentle birth, the wealth and good citizenship of the British race in America, as well its devotion to law and order, British institutions, and the unity of the Empire. This was the leaven they brought to Canada, which has leavened the entire Dominion of this day.[22]
According to Canadian historiansMargaret Conrad and Alvin Finkel, Coyne's memorial incorporates essential themes that have often been incorporated into patriotic celebrations. The Loyalist tradition, as explicated by Murray Barkley and Norman Knowles, includes:
The elite origins of the refugees, their loyalty to the British Crown, their suffering and sacrifice in the face of hostile conditions, their consistent anti-Americanism, and their divinely inspired sense of mission.[23]
Conrad and Finkel point out some exaggerations: only a small percentage of the Loyalists were colonial elite. In fact Loyalists were drawn from every stratum of colonial society, and few suffered violence and hardship. About 20 percent would later return to the United States. Most were loyal to all things British, but other Loyalists supported the United States in the War of 1812. Conrad and Finkel conclude:
[I]n using their history to justify claims to superiority, descendants of the Loyalists abuse the truth and actually diminish their status in the eyes of their non-Loyalists neighbours ... The scholars who argue that the Loyalists planted the seeds of Canadian liberalism or conservatism in British North America usually fail to take into account not only the larger context of political discussion that prevailed throughout the North Atlantic world, but also the political values brought to British North America by other immigrants in the second half of the 18th century.[24]
From the 1870s, many of their descendants returned to the United States in pursuit of cheaper land. In the New England states alone, more than 10% of the population can trace their roots to the Maritime Provinces. Two million more of 14 million inhabitants, or roughly 15%, are part or wholly of French Canadian descent.
 The association's coat of arms | |
 | |
| Abbreviation | UELAC |
|---|---|
| Formation | 27 May 1914; 111 years ago (1914-05-27) |
| Legal status | Charity[25] |
| Purpose | Cultural, historical,hereditary association |
| Headquarters | George Brown House 50 Baldwin Street, Suite 202 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Coordinates | 43°39′21″N79°23′42″W / 43.655825°N 79.39502°W /43.655825; -79.39502 |
President | Patricia Groom[26] |
The United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada (UELAC) is an organization of Loyalist descendants and others interested in Canadian history, in particular the role of the United Empire Loyalists. The organization was incorporated on 27 May 1914 by theLegislative Assembly of Ontario. In 1972, the organization was granted a coat of arms from theCollege of Arms through a letter patent, dated 28 March 1972.[27]
On 17 April 1707,Queen Anne issued a proclamation referencing the use of theUnion Flag "at Sea and Land". The Union Flag began to appear on forts and asregimental colours from this point, and at the time of theAmerican Revolution, this was the flag in use. When those loyal to the Crown left theUnited States forBritish North America, they took this flag with them, and because of this historical connection, it continues to be the official flag of the UELAC.
InCanadian heraldry, Loyalist descendants are entitled to use a Loyalistcoronet in theircoat of arms.[28]
18th-century names are listed first, alongside their present-day equivalents.
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