Tory Story

Having been enthralled with genealogy and my DNA results, I became a master sleuth at hunting for my ancestors and tracking down their stories. I wanted to know why they came to America, their background information, and what they accomplished. As I did, a vivid textbook of American history was compiled. It was my history. My facts.

That experience made me proud, made me puzzled, saddened me, and at times, shocked me. But all of this humbled me. And, as if I was actually summoning each character up, their DNA, which was deeply embedded within my blood, came to life. I could feel their struggles, their pains, and their victories. I value that so much!

As I researched one of the "top tier eight" family units as I call them (each unit is one of my great grandparents,) I was shocked by what I found out; one of my maternal lineage greats had been a "Tory" or "Royalist" in the Revolutionary War. I would have never dreamed this!

Taken from Thomas B. Allen is the author of "Tories: Fighting for the King in America’s First Civil War: "when we remember how America began, we should also remember that within the Revolution there raged a civil war. The rebels fought not only the British but also other Americans who called themselves Loyalists. The rebels called them Tories, a derogatory label linked to the Irish word for outlaw."

He continues, " Tens of thousands of those Tories fled the country after the war, leaving behind an unanswered question: Why did some Americans choose to fight for the King? The answer is hard to find."

The author explains: “Men who… separate themselves from their friends and kindred, who are driven from their homes, who surrender the hopes and expectations of life, and who become outlaws, wanderers, and exiles—such men leave few memorials behind them. Their papers are scattered and lost, and their very names pass from human recollection.”

"One memoir that does survive was written by Comfort Tiffany, a Connecticut farmer and schoolteacher who spent more than a year under house arrest for his outspoken Tory views. But it was a long time before his words emerged from the past. His manuscript was handed down from one generation to the next until it was donated to the Library of Congress in 2000."

" He calls the war a “Shocking and unhappy Struggle Between prince and people”—the people being unruly rebels who were “Giddy, Rude and profligate.”

"Like many of his contemporaries, Tiffany believed that the rebels, by denouncing a king with divinely endowed authority, committed blasphemy. He mourned the loss of “The Remarkable Zeal The New Englanders once had for The Sabbath” and said that under the rebels “The Form and matter of prayer is Changed, and . . . That what was once Good Is now Become Sinful….”

Sidenote: (Does this sound somewhat familiar going in with our country's current climate?)

As I researched the whys in the decision my family made, I don't know if religion or the Crown particularly held any substance, but I do know that my American ancestor had strong ties with his older brother who lived in England and had helped his American brother and his family to become established here. In that aspect, he was a Loyalist.

As Thomas Allen explains, "...some 80,000 Tories who left America, including about 3,500 ex-slaves who had been freed when they went over to the British side. Most of the exiles went to Canada, where they were given tracts of wilderness land."

But my relative, Captain Levi Youmans, having briefly left, came back and re-established himself. There must have been difficult decisions with difficult consequences to bear. Here are some details of him, as detailed in a newspaper article in the Beaufort Gazette:

“Levy Youmans was a sea captain of a company of Loyalists whose names indicate they were all from the same area of the ' Beaufort District — (Murtie June Clark’s book ‘South Carolina Royalists during the Southern Campaign’) After the surrender of Charleston SC he went with British to St Augustine Fla “In contrast John (Levy's brother) was repaid with interest in British sterling for beef that he supplied to the Continental Army. The Revolutionary War seems to have caused a rift within the family — and with many of his neighbors— but Levi did return after the war from his exile in St Augustine Fla and began to buy land. Within a few years records show him owning more than 2000 acres on the Coosawhatchie (river.) The Coosawhatchie Church “Levi Youmans is listed in Statistics of Coosawhatchie Church as minister in for year 1790 The (L) behind his name indicates an academic degree ranking below that of doctor given by some European universities to practice a profession Prince Milium Baptist Church"

According to Wikipedia, " During the American Revolutionary War, much of the town of Coosawhatchie was burned by British forces in 1779."

I think Levi Youmans did his part by rebuilding himself and his town.

(My branch eventually wound up in southern Georgia, as farmers. here is a story about one of them, my great grandfather, Perry Youmans:

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Here are some other great sources and references in regard to the Revolutionary War in America:

Tory vs Patriots During the Revolutionary War written by Awet Amedechiel (https://www.historycentral.com/Revolt/Americans/americansrev.html#google_vignette)

The Americans of 1776 were not all patriots. In fact, according to John Adams' estimates, about one third were patriots, one third loyalists, and one third were either neutral or indifferent.

In almost every ethnic, national, and religious group, there were Americans on both sides.

By the time the Revolutionary War began, there were about 200,000 American Indians east of the Mississippi, members of 85 different nations. A large number of them, resentful of the antagonism of the colonists and attracted by the comparatively friendly diplomacy of the British, sided with the crown. Tribes such as the Mohawks, under Chief Joseph Brant, and the Cherokees, under Dragging Canoe, joined the British to prevent the westward expansion of European settlement. Other tribes remained neutral in the struggle. Still others, such as Oneidas, Mashpees, and the Catawbas, fought on the patriot side, although their numbers could not compare to the 13,000 American Indians fighting for the British. In 1778, the Delawares signed a treaty with the United States, pledging, among other things, mutual friendship and support for the patriot war. This was the first treaty between the United States and an American Indian tribe.

Although most of the Americans involved in the Revolutionary War were English immigrants or descended from English immigrants, many non-English people took part. Many people from the next largest ethnic/national group, African-Americans, became involved in the war. From the British side, Lord Dunmore (John Murray) made a proclamation declaring that any slaves who joined the loyalist cause could be emancipated. Of the eight hundred slaves who took him up on the offer, few were better off since many died while being transported.

The presence of a vast variety of ethnic, national, and religious backgrounds among the Americans of 1776 is certainly reflected in the individuals who participated in the Revolutionary War.