Interviewees:
-
Andrea Rapacz
- Chief Curator of Collections, Connecticut Museum of Culture and History
An estimated twenty percent of Connecticut residents, largely concentrated in the western part of the state near New York, held Loyalist sympathies. After the Declaration, those who refused to renounce allegiance to the Crown faced tarring and feathering, and some joined Loyalist regiments such as the Prince of Wales Regiment of America. Moses Dunbar of Bristol was executed in 1777 for recruiting men to serve the King. Families were torn. Prudence Punderson of Preston was driven from her home by Patriot soldiers after her father—a Loyalist denied protection by Connecticut's governor—fled the colony. After the war, many Loyalists emigrated to Canada while others were quietly welcomed back for economic reasons. It is known that at least one Black Loyalist from Connecticut emigrated to Canada, joined a 1788 expedition to Sierra Leone, and died on the voyage.
