Chronicles of Canada Volume 13 - The United Empire Loyalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration

In 1783, as the American Revolution ended, tens of thousands of colonists faced an impossible choice: accept the new republic or leave everything behind. Roughly one million people, an estimated third of the population, chose to flee north to Canada, carrying nothing but their loyalty to the Crown. They are remembered in American history as cowards and traitors. This book tells their story differently. W. Stewart Wallace reframes the Loyalist exodus not as a defeat but as one of history's great migrations, a deliberate mass movement of people who believed the British system offered greater stability, protection, and promise than the untested republic. These were merchants, farmers, intellectuals, and politicians who weighed the risks and chose differently than their revolutionary neighbors. Their arrival in Canada would reshape the colonies northward, establishing communities and institutions that would become the foundation of English-speaking Canada. Essential reading for anyone interested in North American history, the American Revolution, or the formation of Canadian identity, this volume restores complexity to a story long simplified by winner's history.