Women in The American Revolution - Anglo-American Loyalist Women

Anglo-American Loyalist Women

A crisis of political loyalties disrupted the fabric of colonial America women’s social worlds: whether a man did or did not renounce his allegiance to the king could dissolve ties of class, family, and friendship, isolating women from former connections. A woman’s loyalty to her husband, once a private commitment, could become a political act, especially for women in America committed to men who remained loyal to Great Britain. These loyalist women faced hardship during the Revolution. Women, guilty by association, fell victim to vigilante groups or mobs on account of their husband’s treason. Wives of wealthy loyalists were particularly vulnerable targets of Revolutionary governments eager to confiscate the property of men they considered traitors, although women with their own property may have been less vulnerable to patriot pressure, as confiscation acts normally excluded dower portions from seizure. No matter the social status, however, loyalist women were a part of a political minority, therefore lacking the support of neighbors and friends through hardship.

Many loyalist women chose to leave their communities rather than live among their enemies. A woman could uproot suddenly, but this option often meant leaving home without any family possessions. Loyalists would usually move to Canada, where they found themselves among thousands of fellow loyalists: veterans, families, widows, and children who poured into Nova Scotia. A loyalist could, alternatively, petition to local patriot authorities for safe passage and permission to bring personal belongings into British territory. Even then, American officials limited what a woman could take and demanded that she pay for the journey. Worst of all, she had to leave any son over the age of 12 behind to serve in the patriot army.

Resistance was another option for loyalist women. In 1779, three women—Margaret Inglis, Susannah Robinson, and Mary Morris—plotted to kidnap the mayor of Albany. Others encouraged friends to refuse to take the loyalty oath to new governments. Most of the women who actively supported the Crown participated by aiding loyalist soldiers or by collecting information for the British. Some loyalist women hid their husbands from arrest, while others hid important papers or money from authorities. These acts raised questions about the autonomy of the political commitment of these women: were their actions from wifely loyalty, or evidence of independent political choice?

Officials slowly acknowledged the possibility of autonomous loyalist women’s activity through changing the language of the statutes that defined treason. Whereas before these statutes spoke of “men,” they now spoke of “persons” and substituted “he and she” for “he.” The Massachusetts treason statute of 1779 provided for the confiscation of the estates of executed traitors, but with the traditional proviso that their wives’ dower rights be preserved. The statutes concerning absentee men were less generous, insisting that if a woman wished the Republic to preserve her property rights in her husband’s estate, she must make her own political commitment. These statutes also stipulated that should a woman accompany her husband into exile, patriots would treat her property as forfeit. In thus distinguishing between the loyalist wife who stayed and the loyalist wife who left, the Massachusetts statute encouraged the separation of families and the wives’ independent political decisions. The question of what loyalty married women owed to the state reappeared after the war, when widows of exiled loyalists tried to claim their dower rights.