1910.] GENESIS OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENGE. 13 



especially the great landlords of Dutch origin, and here the War 

 of Independence vvas a downright social revolution in the course 

 of which many of the large estates were confiscated and par- 

 celled ,out to farmers. In Virginia likewise, many of the land- 

 lords were Tories. But in South Carolina and Georgia we 

 observe the very reverse; there the great planters near the sea- 

 coast led the rebellion, while the poor farmers in the upper 

 country, encumbered as they were with heavy debts to the 

 "gentlemen", were loyalists. 



The explanation of these apparent incongruities is likely to 

 be fouild in the opposition of commercial and agrarian interests. 

 In New England the commercial interests were so absolutely 

 predominant, and the upper as well as the lower classes were 

 so strongly attached to them that they approximately rallied the 

 whole population against England. In New York, the city rebelled, 

 the country was loyalist; this was the case also in Pennsyl- 

 vania. In South Carolina and Georgia the merchants and the 

 commercial planters were Whigs, the farmers of the mountains 

 Tories. In all the Middle and Southern colonies, the Revolution 

 had the character of a class struggle; the upper classes sided 

 with or against England according to their commercial interests, 

 the lower classes fought on the opposite side and always against 

 the gentlemen. 



As for the proportional strength of parties within the white 

 population in the rebel colonies, the Patriots may be roughly 

 estimated at a third and the Loyalists at another third, while 

 the rest were ready to join the victorious party. In New Eng- 

 land not more than 5 or 8 per cent of the population were 

 Loyalists; but in New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and 

 Georgia they were in the inajority. As a matter of fact, the 

 advocates of Independence could not reckon on a white popu- 

 lation much exceeding three quarters of a million. 



The Loyalists put into the field about 25,000 soldiers for 

 the defence of the Union, and the rebels were never able to 

 raise a force very much superior, for their cause. Taking then 

 the English army into account, we shall find that it was 



