In 1778,
New York State Patriots forced colonists loyal to the British government to flee north into what became Ontario and Quebec. Many of the defiant young British American
Loyalists soon returned south as soldiers, spies and scouts to fight for their multigenerational farms along the Mohawk River, Lake Champlain and the
Hudson River Valley. Jodoin offers an enlightened look back at ten of these young men and women, who, upon defeat, were banished from their ancestral homelands forever.
Background Information
New York State grew to be most populous state in the nineteenth century as a result of its strategic position in water transportation, both oceangoing and inland. The Hudson River drains upstate New York into the Atlantic, forming the fine harbor New York City in its estuary. Those citizens of the American colonies who kept their loyalty to Britain were known as Tories, or Loyalists.
