We know that Patriots fought for independence from Great Britain. They are mostly the people we hear about in school; we don't normally hear about the Loyalist side of the war. A Loyalist is someone who is loyal to King George III. A Tory is a British soldier; that's what the Patriots called them, at least.

Some Loyalists didn't fight because they were not dissatisfied. They may have been wealthy or simply believed that Great Britain was justified in its actions. Patriots would insult Loyalists and mistrusted them because they did not believe in the Patriots' cause.

Another group of people who did not wish to fight during the American Revolution were Quakers, or Friends. A Quaker was someone who just wanted peace, or wouldn't fight because it was against their religion. They were often mistakenly referred to as Loyalists because they wouldn't fight.

Neutralists were those who either didn't want to fight, lived too far away to fight, or believed in both Loyalist and Patriot principles. German hired soldiers called Hessians were paid by the British government or Parliament to go and fight on the British side.When they were first sent over to the colonies, there were 25,000 German Hessian troops and 5,000 American Casualties.

Image courtesy of Art Today.

After the war, many of the Loyalists and Quakers moved up to Canada and made their own community. The Hessians returned to Germany. The Patriots started their own new government, called a Confederation.