Americans and the Revelution
American Revelution
Americans and the Revolution.
Those who remained loyal to the king called themselves loyalists. Some colonists,however, chose to be neutral. They took neither side. As people took sides,towns,friendships, and families were sometimes torn apart. One patriot woman stayed in Boston while loyalist members of her family moved away. She wrote, ''When I seriously reflect that I have lost my father,mother,brother and sisters .... I am half distracted [in shock] ....''*
Colonists faced other personal hardships. Often their towns were robbed and destroyed by the British army. In 1776, for example, British soldiers burned many areas of new jersey. They even stole beds from colonists' houses!
In some causes, the colonists destroyed their own possessions to keep the British from taking them. Some patriot men and women burned their corps before the British army arrived. Their actions made sure that the British could not harvest the crops for food.