Georgia had an unusually high proportion of Loyalists, unsurprising given the colony’s youth, its dependence on British protection, and its frontier anxieties. After independence, the state legislature passed confiscation acts seizing Loyalist property and impressment acts extracting percentages of property values. Yet one of the most striking aspects of Georgia’s Loyalist story is reintegration: by 1785, many Loyalists who had not been flagrantly violent returned home, with some serving in the Georgia militia. Old animosities faded, and former Loyalists were eventually folded back into civic life, celebrating July 4th alongside the Patriots they had once opposed. Governor James Wright was the most prominent exception—he died in London, having lost everything, buried in Westminster Abbey, never able to return to the colony he had served for over two decades.
Interviewees
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Stan Deaton
- Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian, Georgia Historical Society
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Christy Crisp
- Vice President of Education and Programs, Georgia Historical Society
