It's kind of like if Canadians nursed historical grievances against the US over the American revolution. After all, Ontario's early English-speaking settlers mostly came from what was to be the US, many of them Loyalists fleeing the US after the Revolutionary War. Many of them lost property in what became the US. Imagine if they still called themselves refugees, demanded the destruction of the United States and the removal or death of everyone who came here after the Revolution, and taught their children to look forward to slaughtering Americans. Imagine UEL's shelling Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo, sending cadres across the border to slaughter Americans in their homes and schools. Imagine UEL's holding festivals everytime some American were slaughtered.
During the American Revolution, a significant proportion of the population of New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, East Florida, West Florida, and other colonies remained loyal to the Crown. Many Loyalist refugees made the difficult overland trek into Canada after losing their homes, property, and security during the Revolution. The motto of New Brunswick, created out of Nova Scotia for loyalist settlement, is Spem reduxit ("Hope restored").
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Following the end of the Revolution and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Loyalist soldiers and civilians were evacuated from New York and resettled in other colonies of the British Empire, most notably in Canada.
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The arrival of the Loyalists after the Revolutionary War led to the division of Canada into the provinces of Upper Canada (what is now southern Ontario) and Lower Canada (what is now southern Quebec). They arrived and settled in groups of ethnicity and religion. [4]
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Thousands of Iroquois and other pro-British Native Americans were expelled from New York and other states and resettled in Canada. The descendants of one such group of Iroquois, led by Joseph Brant Thayendenegea, settled at Six Nations of the Grand River, the largest First Nations Reserve in Canada. Another smaller group of Iroquois led by Captain John Deserontyon Odeserundiye, settled on the shores of the Bay of Quinte in modern day Southeastern Ontario.[
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Modern-day descendants of those original refugees may employ the term "United Empire Loyalist", sometimes using "U.E." as postnominal letters (the honorific is not part of the official Canadian honours system but was an attempt to recognise the sacrifices of the Loyalists). [9] The practice is uncommon today, even in the original Loyalist strongholds like southeastern Ontario, but historians and genealogists still use it extensively as a kind of shorthand for identifying the ancestry of particular families.[ citation needed]
The influence of the Loyalists on the evolution of Canada remains evident. Their ties with Britain and their antipathy to the United States provided the strength needed to keep Canada independent and distinct in North America. The Loyalists' basic distrust of republicanism and " mob rule" influenced Canada's gradual, "paper-strewn" path to independence. In effect, the new British North American provinces of Upper Canada (the forerunner of Ontario) and New Brunswick were created as places of refuge for the United Empire Loyalists. The mottoes of the two provinces reflect this history: Ontario's motto is Ut incepit fidelis sic permanet ("Loyal she began, loyal she remains"); New Brunswick's, Spem Reduxit ("Hope restored").
The word "Loyalist" appears frequently in school, street, and business names in such Loyalist-settled communities as Belleville, Ontario. The nearby city of Kingston, established as a Loyalist stronghold, was named in honour of King George III. And on the outskirts of that city is a township named simply " Loyalist".
In 1996, Canadian politicians Peter Milliken (a descendant of American Loyalists) and John Godfrey sponsored the Godfrey-Milliken Bill, which would have entitled Loyalist descendants to reclaim ancestral property in the United States which had been confiscated during the American Revolution. The bill, which did not pass the House of Commons, was intended primarily as a satirical response to the contemporaneous American Helms-Burton Act. [10]
In 1997, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed a bill declaring June 19, "United Empire Loyalist Day" in the province of Ontario. United Empire Loyalists are also remembered in the province's motto, "Loyal she began, loyal she remains", which can also be found on the province of Ontario's Coat of Arms.
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List of Loyalist settlements in present-day Canada[ edit]
18th-century names are listed first, alongside their present-day equivalents.
- Antigonish, Nova Scotia
- Beamsville, Ontario
- Myer's Creek ? Belleville, Ontario
- Buell's Bay ? Brockville, Ontario
- Butlersbury ? Newark ? Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
- Cataraqui ? Kingston, Ontario
- Clifton ? Niagara Falls, Ontario
- Country Harbour, Nova Scotia
- Cobourg, Ontario
- Colchester ? village now within Essex, Ontario
- Cornwall, Ontario
- Digby, Nova Scotia
- Doaktown, New Brunswick
- Eastern Townships, Quebec
- Effingham, Ontario
- Grimsby, Ontario
- Douglas Township ? Kennetcook, Nova Scotia
- Lincoln, Ontario
- Ernestown Township -> Loyalist, Ontario
- Machiche ? Yamachiche, Quebec
- Merrittsville ? Welland, Ontario
- Gravelly Bay ? Port Colborne
- Port Roseway ? Shelburne, Nova Scotia
- Prescott, Ontario
- Prince Edward County, Ontario
- Rawdon, Nova Scotia
- Saint John, New Brunswick
- Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia
- Shelburne, Nova Scotia
- Six Nations and Brantford, Ontario
- Smithville, Ontario
- St. Andrews by-the-Sea ? St. Andrews, New Brunswick
- St. Anne's Point ? Fredericton, New Brunswick
- Summerville, Nova Scotia
- The Twelve ? Shipman's Corners ? St. Catharines, Ontario
- Turkey Point ? Norfolk, Ontario
- Sandwich ? Windsor, Ontario
- Wainfleet, Ontario [14]
- Remsheg ? Wallace, Nova Scotia
- York ? Toronto
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