Rating: 5 out of 5
I picked this book and author up because of her participation in the Empire podcast where I found the subject of the losing side in the “Revolutionary War” rather interesting. I started reading this a long time ago, but the ponderous (academic) style of the early chapters slowed me down and I took a break, continuing a short time ago when it seemed more interesting. Overall, I liked this story though several parts of the narrative seemed relatively repetitive (some phrases turn up every few pages) and I’m not sure if the all points made in the introduction are fulfilled.
We follow the story of the “loyalists” who were forced out of the United States after the Treaty of Paris. In the main, it’s the stories of Jamaica, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Upper and Lower Canada, the Bahamas, and Sierra Leone that the reader is shown, with relatively in depth coverage of the internal politics of the people who travelled to these colonies.
I enjoyed this very much, as it gave a relatively detailed overview of a number of colonies that have not been a very big part of typical histories. The author’s style is better throughout these chapters, and she also quotes first-person narratives liberally.
This book came back from a relatively poor first impression, ending out much better than I had hoped. It also turned out to be very interesting, so well worth it!
