Existing comment:
Choosing Sides
[Loyalists were colonists who remained loyal to the British crown; they were called at the time Tories and Royalists. They numbered about 500,000 or 15 to 20 percent of the American population.]
Some planters––like Ralph Wormeley––remained firmly Loyalist. Others, though inclined toward moderation, shifted to the patriot cause even when faced with family division. Edmund Pendleton stated in 1774, "we utterly disavow [independence]." Carter Braxton was criticized because his wife and father-in-law were Loyalists. Both Pendleton and Braxton ultimately signed the Declaration of Independence. |