The names in Massachusetts
read like a list of the leading families of New England. The
"Black List" of Pennsylvania contained four hundred and ninety
names of Loyalists charged with treason, and Philadelphia had the
grim experience of seeing two Loyalists led to the scaffold with
ropes around their necks and hanged. Most of the persecuted
Loyalists lost all their property and remained exiles from their
former homes. The self-appointed committees took in hand the task
of disciplining those who did not fly, and the rabble often
pushed matters to brutal extremes. When we remember that
Washington himself regarded Tories as the vilest of mankind and
unfit to live, we can imagine the spirit of mobs, which had
sometimes the further incentive of greed for Loyalist property.
Loyalists had the experience of what we now call boycotting when
they could not buy or sell in the shops and were forced to see
their own shops plundered. Mills would not grind their corn.
Their cattle were maimed and poisoned. They could not secure
payment of debts due to them or, if payment was made, they
received it in the debased continental currency at its face
value. They might not sue in a court of law, nor sell their
property, nor make a will.
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