Victorious in Defeat: The American Loyalists in Canada
In the maritime provinces and Quebec, writes Wallace Brown, thousands of Loyalists took refuge and changed the course of Canadian history.
‘They [the Loyalists] would rather go to Japan than go among the Americans where they could never live in peace.’
- Col. John Butler, a New York Loyalist who emigrated to Canada.
As the War for Independence drew to a close, thousands of American Loyalists were looking for new homes.1 The most attractive location because of proximity, availability of land and continuing royal rule, was what was left of British North America, constituting in 1783 three colonies: Nova Scotia, which included the future New Brunswick; the Island of St John, renamed Prince Edward Island in 1799.
And the ancient province of Quebec, which since 1774 stretched west to include the Great Lakes region. The term Canada, except as a synonym for Quebec, is an anachronism before 1867 (the date of Confederation); but it will be used in this essay to designate the entire area. The Maritimes refers to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
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