Virginia was less a Loyalist stronghold than New York or Charleston. The main exception was Norfolk’s merchant community, though the city was largely destroyed early in the war after Patriots razed the city following a British bombardment. John Randolph, brother of Patriot leader Peyton Randolph, left Virginia with Dunmore and wrote to Jefferson in 1779 urging him to “rescind your Declaration of Independence,” dying in England and only returning to Virginia when posthumously reinterred there. Nicholas Cresswell, an English visitor from 1774 to 1777, called Washington a dictator and documented the social violence facing suspected Tories. Charlotte Thornton, a widow, departed for England before the Declaration, citing loyalty as her reason. George and Isabella Logan sheltered Dunmore under social pressure and faced community reprisals. Shadrach Furman, a prosperous free Black man who sided with the British, was beaten, lost his property, and petitioned the Crown from London in poverty—illustrating the particular vulnerability of Black Loyalists, many of whom ended up scattered across the Atlantic World in Nova Scotia, London, and Sierra Leone.
Interviewees
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Maggie Creech
- Director of Education, Virginia Museum of History and Culture
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James Herrera-Brookes
- Melanie Trent De Schutter Senior Director of Research & Publications, Virginia Museum of History and Culture
