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Phillip Papas, Thomas N. Ingersoll. The Loyalist Problem in Revolutionary New England., The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 1, February 2018, Pages 213–214, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/123.1.213
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Thomas N. Ingersoll’s The Loyalist Problem in Revolutionary New England begins with an observation from Mercy Otis Warren, the author of one of the earliest histories of the American Revolution (History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution [1805]). Warren, who was wife and sister, respectively, to two of Massachusetts’s leading revolutionaries, noted that during the Revolution the loyalists “experienced much clemency from the opposite party, yet, perhaps not in the full latitude that policy might have dictated” (Ingersoll, 1). Warren admitted that while some patriots mistreated their loyalist neighbors, this behavior was generally an anomaly. “Overall,” writes Ingersoll, Warren “thought most loyalists enjoyed a generous policy at the hands of the rebels, and the victors banished only those exiles who worked with ‘settled rancor’ against their countrymen” (1). Warren’s assessment of the patriots’ policy toward the loyalists is at the heart of Ingersoll’s deeply researched, persuasively argued, and well-written book. “The argument of the present book,” he states, “is that Warren’s view is a balanced one … the rebels did not aim to drive out the opponents, so most loyalists never had to leave the United States.” In the end, “the rebels demonstrated a remarkable degree of toleration” (1).
