Scholars build on Calhoon's work and consider Loyalism's relationship to conflict resolution, imperial bureaucracy, and identity creation. Since the 1970s scholars have regarded Robert M. Calhoon as an invigorating and definitive force when it comes to the study of American Loyalism. His decades-long work redefined the Loyalists' role in the American Revolution from being portrayed as static characters opposing change to being seen eventually as reactionary actors adapting to a society in upheaval. Loyalists were central to the Revolution, and Calhoon and these authors argue that they were not so different in ideology from their Patriot neighbors-except occasionally when they were. In The Consequences of Loyalism, Rebecca Brannon and Joseph S. Moore seek to provide an understanding of Calhoon's foundational influence and the development continuing in the wake of his prolific career. This volume unites sixteen previously unpublished essays that build on Calhoon's work and consider Loyalism's relationship to conflict resolution, imperial bureaucracy, and identity creation. In the first of two sections, established and rising scholars discuss the complexities of Loyalist identity, while considering Calhoon's earlier work. In the second section, scholars work from Calhoon's later publications to investigate Loyalism in terms of the consequences of Loyalism for the Loyalists, and for the legacy of the Revolutionary War. The Consequences of Loyalism offers a bold, new reinterpretation of Loyalism. This book brings Loyalist dilemmas alive, digging into their personalities and postwar routes. The essays discuss not only Loyalists' experiences during the Revolution, but also their coping and even reintegration in the aftermath. Loyalists from all facets of society fought for what they considered their home country: women wrote letters, commanders took to the battlefield, and thinkers shaped the political conversation. This volume complements Calhoon's influential work, expands the scope of Loyalist studies, and opens the field to a deeper, perhaps revolutionary understanding of the king's men.

The American Revolution was a vicious civil war fought between families and neighbors. Nowhere was this truer than in South Carolina. Yet, after the Revolution, South Carolina's victorious Patriots offered vanquished Loyalists a prompt and generous legal and social reintegration. From Revolution to Reunion investigates the way in which South Carolinians, Patriot and Loyalist, managed to reconcile their bitter differences and reunite to heal South Carolina and create a stable foundation for the new United States to become a political and economic leader. Rebecca Brannon considers rituals and emotions, as well as historical memory, to produce a complex and nuanced interpretation of the reconciliation process in post-Revolutionary South Carolina, detailing how Loyalists and Patriots worked together to heal their society. She frames the process in a larger historical context by comparing South Carolina's experience with that of other states. Brannon highlights how Loyalists apologized but also went out of their way to serve their neighbors and to make themselves useful, even vital, members of the new experiment in self-government and liberty ushered in by the Revolution. Loyalists built on existing social ties to establish themselves in the new Republic, and they did it successfully. By 1784 the state government reinstated almost all the Loyalists who had stayed, as the majority of Loyalists had reinscribed themselves into the postwar nation. Brannon argues that South Carolinians went on to manipulate the way they talked about Loyalism in public to guarantee that memories would not be allowed to disturb the peaceful reconciliation they had created. South Carolinians succeeded in creating a generous and lasting reconciliation between former enemies, but in the process they unfortunately downplayed the dangers of civil war-which may have made it easier for South Carolinians to choose another civil war.