A history of the Americans who chose to side with the British in the American Revolution that sheds important new light on the little-known figures whose lives were forever changed because they remained faithful to their mother country.

"A gripping exploration of the intense psychology and character of Benedict Arnold, arguing that he was essential to victory before he was a traitor Benedict Arnold committed treason- for more than two centuries, that's all that most Americans have known about him. Yet Arnold was much more than a turncoat-his achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era. GOD SAVE BENEDICT ARNOLD...

"Drawing on Arnold's surviving writings and on the letters, memoirs, and political documents of his contemporaries ... a fascinating portrait of a brilliant man, consistently undervalued by his peers, who made a choice that continues to reverberate through American history."

What causes people to forsake their country and take arms against it? George Washington in the 1770s stood at the apex of Virginia society. Benjamin Franklin was more successful still, having risen from humble origins to world fame. John Adams revered the law. Yet all three men became rebels against the British Empire that fostered their success. Others in the same circle of family and friends chose differently-- and soon heard themselves denounced...

At the end of the American Revolution, 60,000 Americans loyal to the British cause fled the United States and became refugees throughout the British Empire. This groundbreaking book offers the first global history of the loyalist exodus to Canada, the Caribbean, Sierra Leone, India, and beyond.