Related articles and links |  1 of 6

This article was originally published in the July 2, 1976 issue of Christianity Today.

Colonial Americans who remained loyal to Great Britain during the Revolution have only recently become a subject of serious study. For a very long time, writers on American history perceived the Revolution much as the original patriots did. So long as the virtue of the patriot cause and the magnitude of British evil were accepted without question, the historian could look upon colonial Tories only as sadly deluded, stubbornly obnoxious, and crassly self-serving lackeys of the British tyrants. And from a religious perspective, belief in the manifest righteousness of the patriot effort prevented later Americans from being able to understand how a colonist could be both a genuine believer and a Tory.

There were, however, Christian roots to the Loyalist point of view. The political commitments of the Christian Loyalists may have to be rejected, but a study of their religious perspective can enlighten American Christians who are concerned about sorting out loyalties to God, church, and country.

The motives that led colonial Americans to remain loyal to Britain were as many and varied as those that prompted others to seek independence. In all, some one-fifth to one-third of the colonists are thought to have had Tory leanings or to have actively supported the British connection. Some of these, particularly crown officials and Anglican ministers, were predisposed by their positions to Loyalism. Some were bound to England by commercial, family, or traditional ties. Some were convinced through reading the political writings of the day that the argument for Loyalism was intrinsically better than the case for rebellion. And many were simply indisposed by their own constitutions to undergo the distress, social upheaval, and radical changes entailed by the Revolution. From a Christian point of view, Loyalists divide naturally between members of the Church of England and members of the other religious bodies in the colonies.

Many Anglicans in the middle and southern colonies supported the patriot cause — George Washington and Patrick Henry are prominent examples. But Anglicans from New York and New England were the most vocal exponents of a Christian Loyalism. Sincere Christian convictions were displayed by many members of the Church of England who resisted the drive for independence. Prominent among these was Moses Dunbar, whose last days stand out as one of the most notable examples of Christian fortitude on either side during the Revolutionary period.

Dunbar, a layman from Waterbury, Connecticut had moved from Congregationalism to Anglicanism before 1776, and at the start of the war had offered his services to the British. In January 1777, during a visit to his home in Connecticut he was captured by patriot forces. In his pocket was a captain's commission from a British regiment. A Hartford jury sentenced him to death by hanging.

On the day before his execution Dunbar wrote a long personal statement that he entitled "Last Speech and Dying Words." This document spoke briefly of his early life, mentioned the family estrangement caused by his conversion to the Church of England, related his inability to "reconcile my Opinion to the necessity or Lawfulness of taking up Arms against Great Britain," gave the details of his arrest and trial, and then took up spiritual matters:

I shall soon be delivered from all the Pains and Troubles of this Mortal State, I shall be Answerable to None but the all-seeing God, who is infinitely Just and who knoweth all things. As I am fully persuaded that I depart in a State of peace with God and my own Conscience, I can have but little doubt of my future Happiness through the Mercy of God and Merits of Jesus Christ. I have sincerely repented of my sins, Examined my Heart, prayed Earnestly to God for Mercy for the Gracious pardon of my Manifold and heinous Sins, and now resign myself wholly to the disposal of my heavenly Father, submitting my will to his.

next page... |  1 of 6

share this page

July (Web-Only) 2008, Vol. 52