The Imperial Exile: Loyalists in the British Empire

FAIN: FT-53514-05

Maya Jasanoff
University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA 22903-4833)

This project studies Loyalists—American colonists who sided with Britain during the American Revolution—who fled to different parts of the British Empire during and after the war. Exiled from the United States, yet often strangers to Europe, the Loyalists sought new homes across the British imperial world: the Caribbean, Canada, West Africa, and India. By tracing the Loyalist diaspora, I aim to explore the shaping of national and transnational identities; to bring together the sub-fields of British, imperial, and early American history; and to investigate a highly topical subject that has received virtually no scholarly attention.