Ben Franklin's World BFW Revisited: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World
Sep 16, 2025
Brad Jones, historian and CSU Fresno professor who studies the American Revolution and the British Atlantic. He explores Loyalism as a vibrant political identity shaped by Britishness, Protestant concerns, and reactions to revolutionary violence. Short, provocative takes trace loyalist networks across Atlantic cities, shifting loyalties after 1778, and how local conditions like slavery and military presence mattered.
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Revolution As An Internal British Civil War
- The American Revolution functioned as a civil war because British subjects fought British subjects across the empire.
- Brad Jones shows families, neighbors, and soldiers split, making identity and loyalty central to the conflict's meaning.
British Identity Tied To Protestant Liberty
- Britishness in the 18th century tied freedom, prosperity, and Protestantism into a shared imperial identity.
- Jones argues colonists and mainland Britons celebrated Protestant literacy and commerce as proof Britain produced liberty and wealth.
Stamp Act As An Imperial Event Not Just A Prelude
- The 1765 Stamp Act was an imperial crisis across 26 colonies, not just a colonial prologue to revolution.
- Jones notes protests in Glasgow, Jamaica, Nova Scotia, and the colonies and that repeal reinforced faith in imperial systems.
