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Friend Of Government Or Damned Tory: The Creation Of The Loyalist Identity In Revolutionary New Hampshire, 1774-1784, James Leslie Walsh

Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation examines the creation of loyalist identity during the American Revolution. Two distinct identities were fashioned, one by the loyalists themselves and a second competing identity which was created for them by their opponents, the radical faction of the revolutionary movement. Both identities were created consciously and for political or economic motives.

The identity created by the loyalists through their actions and words is to be found in a close reading of the claims filed with the Claims Commission created by Parliament in 1783. The dissertation argues that loyalists self-fashioned an individual political identity, as part of the creation …