American Loyalists the American Revolution Term Paper

Therefore, for instance, the Stamp Act was justified through "granting and applying (of) certain stamp duties, and other duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America, towards further defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same; and for amending such parts of the several acts of parliament relating to the trade and revenues of the said colonies and plantations, as direct the manner of determining and recovering the penalties and forfeitures therein mentioned"(the Stamp Act, 1765).

Taking these legislative manners into consideration, the opponents of the Loyalists considered that the issue of trade as a reason for maintaining the British rule was by no means a viable solution. More precisely, they argued that the lack of representation in the British Parliament should not allow the British to impose taxes they do not agree or vote upon. From this perspective, it can be said that the Loyalists had a rather weak argument especially if statistics are taken into account. In this sense, the British exports to the American colonies were comparable to those to the West Indies or the Jamaica (the New World., n.d.). Therefore, it is rather hard to assess the way in which the American colonies would have been affected, as the Loyalists suggest by the Revolution from the British Empire.

Finally, there is another important issue which is worth mentioning in relation to the general view over the Loyalists. It can be said that the political convictions and the philosophical thought along with the economic concerns did represent important causes for the creation of an opposition force in the Revolution. Still, it can also be suggested the fact that in the end the Loyalists were afraid for themselves as individuals. In this sense, "there was an abundance of Loyalists that were simply sympathetic towards Britain and/or had too strong of connections with their mother country to revolt. Loyalists, in many instances, were too afraid of the repercussions that would result if Britain had prevailed and won the war, and they had contributed in any way to the revolution. Newly arrived immigrants from Britain, Scotland, Ireland, et al., didn't want to support the aristocratic colonial leaders, so they would often aid the British" (Walton, 2007) Therefore without disregarding the political and identity problems of the Loyalists it must be said that in the end one of the reasons for which they adhered to the British cause was the fear from a potential win by the British.

Works Cited

Borden, Morton, and Penn Borden. The American Tory. Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 1972.

Jenkins, P. (1997). A history of the United States. New York: Palgrave.

The New World. An ocean away...Trade in the American colonies. N.d. 5 May 2008. http://courses.wcupa.edu/wanko/LIT400/NewWorld/trade_in_the_american_colonies.htm

The Stamp Act, Great Britain: Parliament, 1765. The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. 2005. 5 May 2008 http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/amerrev/parliament/stamp_act_1765.htm

US Department of State. Loyalists during the American Revolution. N.d. 5 May 2008. http://countrystudies.us/united-states/history-33.htm

Walton, Mac. Loyalists During the American Revolution. 2007. 5 May 2008 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/240212/loyalists_during_the_american_revolution.html