The empire strikes back

Something strange happened in New York on a cold November afternoon in 1783: the city effectively turned itself inside out. Mounted on a grey horse, George Washington marched down Manhattan at the head of the victorious US army. At the same time, British troops headed frantically in the opposite direction. When they reached the southernmost tip of the island, they clambered into longboats and rowed out to the Royal Navy ships waiting in the harbour.

All this, of course, left the thousands of loyalists who had supported the British during the War of Independence in a very tricky position. It’s tempting to characterise them as a lot of 18th-century Bufton Tuftons — rich, educated Anglicans who’d made the fatal mistake of pledging allegiance to their mother country rather than their adopted one.

In fact, they were a remarkably disparate bunch. Along with staunch Anglophiles such as William Franklin — only son of the American founding father Ben — there were large numbers of American Indians.