Resisting Independence - by Brad A Jones (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A study of British Loyalism in four British Atlantic port cities - Halifax [Nova Scotia], Kingston [Jamaica], Glasgow, and New York City - during the period of the American Revolution and War for Independence (1765-1783)"--

Book Synopsis

In Resisting Independence, Brad A. Jones maps the loyal British Atlantic's reaction to the American Revolution. Through close study of four important British Atlantic port cities--New York City; Kingston, Jamaica; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Glasgow, Scotland--Jones argues that the revolution helped trigger a new understanding of loyalty to the Crown and empire. This compelling account reimagines Loyalism as a shared transatlantic ideology, no less committed to ideas of liberty and freedom than the American cause and not limited to the inhabitants of the thirteen American colonies.

Jones reminds readers that the American Revolution was as much a story of loyalty as it was of rebellion. Loyal Britons faced a daunting task--to refute an American Patriot cause that sought to dismantle their nation's claim to a free and prosperous Protestant empire. For the inhabitants of these four cities, rejecting American independence thus required a rethinking of the beliefs and ideals that framed their loyalty to the Crown and previously drew together Britain's vast Atlantic empire.

Resisting Independence describes the formation and spread of this new transatlantic ideology of Loyalism. Loyal subjects in North America and across the Atlantic viewed the American Revolution as a dangerous and violent social rebellion and emerged from twenty years of conflict more devoted to a balanced, representative British monarchy and, crucially, more determined to defend their rights as British subjects. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, as their former countrymen struggled to build a new nation, these loyal Britons remained convinced of the strength and resilience of their nation and empire and their place within it.

Review Quotes

Resisting Independence adds much-needed breadth, texture, and nuance to our understanding of Loyalism, not just in the 'Thirteen Colonies, ' but in the wider British Atlantic world. [A]ccording to Jones, the ideological threads crucial to such connections have not been analyzed in the same rigorous way as have the ideological bonds shared by those referred to as Patriots. The provision of such rigor is another of the key goals of this book.

-- "New West Indian Guide"

Resisting Independence makes a major contribution by contextualizing popular loyalism's ideological formation in the print culture of four diverse port cities and persuasively probes the tension within Britishness between diversity and unity during a critical period of change.

-- "William & Mary Quarterly"

Jones has provided a revealing, boundary-crossing study of an alternative set of ideas spawned by the American Revolution.

-- "JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC"

Jones's greatest contribution is to the Loyalist historiography.Resisting Independence is a well-written piece of work. Jones combines a compelling narrative with analysis, thus making it a good read for experts as well as beginners in the subject of the American Revolution, Loyalism, and the British Atlantic world. It offers a fascinating insight into how networks were developed and nurtured between the colonies that enabled Protestant Whig ideas to spread and develop Loyalism, while also demonstrating how the societies of Glasgow, Halifax, Kingston, and New York coped with the revolution and its subsequent war.

-- "H-Net"

What Jones calls the book's 'multiple paths approach' to the American Revolution widens the historical lens to account for the circulation of Loyalist ideology while also localizing the politics of loyalty throughout the empire. These multiple perspectives are managed nimbly and thoroughly, and they do provide a new story of British Loyalists that resists--as Jones argues--the supposed inevitability of the American Revolution.

-- "Early American Literature"

About the Author

Brad A. Jones is Professor of History at California State University, Fresno.