As George Orwell, the celebrated British author and social commentator, wrote in a 1944 newspaper column, “History is written by the winners.” According to my late Aunt Herta, U.S. history is no exception.
Aunt Herta, now long-deceased, was a large woman with an even more prominent voice, which she earned as a career schoolteacher. Like my parents, she was a Canadian.
Aunt Herta took particular pleasure in showing me Niagara Falls and even greater pleasure in introducing me to the United Empire Loyalists. No one can forget the falls, but very few Americans have heard about the Loyalists, rarely mentioned in social studies classes or textbooks.
The “Loyalists” story goes back 250 years, to September 5, 1774, when delegates from 12 of Britain’s 20 North American colonies met in Philadelphia to respond to the Intolerable Acts — the British Parliament’s response to the Boston Tea Party. This gathering is known as the First Continental Congress.
You may be wondering: What 20 colonies? I thought there were 13. What gives?
In 1774, British North America included 20 colonies — not only the 13 most U.S. schoolchildren are familiar with but also Quebec, four maritime colonies, East and West Florida, and Bermuda. There were also several large territories.
All were invited to Philadelphia, but Florida and the northern colonies declined, and only 12 of the 20 sent delegates (Georgia joined later).
The Continental Congress is significant for having united the (13) colonies, paving the way for U.S. independence.
What else did it do? It criticized Britain for violating the colonists’ “English Liberties,” demanded repeal of the Intolerable Acts, and launched a boycott of British goods, reducing imports from Britain by 95 percent in 1775.
To enforce this, the Congress created a mechanism for reporting violators: Colonists were supposed to snitch on one another. We don’t usually think of the American Revolution as a story about “snitches,” but there you have it.
Beyond English Liberties, the 1774 Congress also complained about what we now term “lawfare” — using the courts to harass or punish one’s opponents.
Frustrated with the decisions of colonial courts, British authorities declared that defendants could be transferred to Britain for trial. They wanted British juries deciding, not colonials, especially in cases involving British soldiers or alleged revolutionaries. Lawfare is nothing new.
The Continental Congress also complained about the subversion of religion.
To understand why, we need to return to Canada. In June 1774, the British government eliminated discrimination against Catholics in Quebec, reinstating French civil law and allowing the Catholic Church to demand tithes. Catholics made up only a tiny fraction of the 13 colonies’ population, but Quebec was overwhelmingly Catholic and growing rapidly.
With the Quebec Act, the British government was reserving an entire province for them. The Congress alleged that the Quebec Act “established” Catholicism as Quebec’s official religion. This was troubling for colonials whose ancestors came to North America to flee established religions.
Moreover, Quebec was also geographically huge, covering an area from the Mississippi River to current-day Ohio — and stretching far into northeast Canada.
Thus, Quebec stood in the way of America’s westward expansion. This was a critical cause of the Revolutionary War — and when the war ended, Britain gave up half of Quebec, creating the Northwest Territory and opening up the West.
All these issues jumped out at me recently when Republicans began harping on the “COVID snitch line” that they alleged Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz created in Minnesota.
Like Walz, most Americans don’t like the idea of snitching on one’s neighbors. Nor do they support using the courts to go after opponents. Most believe in minding their own business, as Walz stated. Live and let live.
What happened to the people snitched on during the Revolutionary period? About 100,000 of them, having been persecuted by their neighbors, fled the United States. Many landed in what is now the Canadian province of Ontario, which includes Ottawa, Canada’s capital, and Toronto, its largest city.
Many Ontario residents still think of themselves as United Empire Loyalists. The loyalists are rarely discussed in American classrooms. As the man said, history is written by the winners.
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Publish date : 2024-08-27 20:14:00
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