That Ever Loyal Island: Staten Island and the American Revolution

Phillip Papas

Published by New York University Press 2009

That Ever Loyal Island

Staten Island and the American Revolution

Phillip Papas

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814768686.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Of crucial strategic importance to both the British and the Continental Army, Staten Island was, for a good part of the American Revolution, a bastion of Loyalist support. With its military and political significance, Staten Island provides rich terrain for Phillip Papas's illuminating case study of the local dimensions of the Revolutionary War.
Papas traces Staten Island's political sympathies not to strong ties with Britain, but instead to local conditions that favored the status quo instead of revolutionary change. With a thriving agricultural economy, stable political structure, and strong allegiance to the Anglican Church, on the eve of war it was in Staten Island's self-interest to throw its support behind the British, in order to maintain its favorable economic, social, and political climate.
Over the course of the conflict, continual occupation and attack by invading armies deeply eroded Staten Island's natural and other resources, and these pressures, combined with general war weariness, created fissures among the residents of “that ever loyal island,” with Loyalist neighbors fighting against Patriot neighbors in a civil war. Papas’s thoughtful study reminds us that the Revolution was both a civil war and a war for independence—a duality that is best viewed from a local perspective.

Author / Editor information

Papas Phillip :

Phillip Papas is Associate Professor of History and Chairperson of the Economics, Government, and History Department at Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey.

Reviews

This is an admirable historythoroughly researched, clearly written, and persuasively argued. It adds significantly to what we have known about the identity of Loyalists and the intensity of the hostility that they faced during the Revolutionary War in the middle colonies.
Robert Calhoon,author of The Loyalists in Revolutionary America, 1760-1781:
An excellent booksuccinct yet deeply researched, well written and filled with telling bits of evidence worked smoothly into an interpretive narrative. An insightful, important study.

Carol Berkin,author of Revolutionary Mothers:
A beautifully written, richly descriptive, and thoroughly-researched account of the importance of Staten Island in the American Revolution. This is an important book, demonstrating that a close examination and analysis of local politics, economics, and social structure can hold the key to understanding national history.

Is not only a micro-history, it provides lessons in the winningand keepingthe & hearts and minds of a local civilian population.
In his crisp That Ever Loyal Island, Papas explores the experiences of the inhabitants of Staten Island during the Revolutionary War to explain why many of them sided with the British instead of joining the American revolutionaries or remaining neutral.

Papas has done us a service by revealing the anguish and monumental stresses of the American Revolution

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 The Crossroads of the Middle Colonies The People, Society, and Environment of Staten Island Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2 “An Unfriendly Disposition Towards the Liberties of America” Staten Islanders and the Colonial Resistance Movement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
3 “As the Tempest Approaches” Staten Island and the Whig Defense of New York City Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
4 “Our Inveterate Enemies” Staten Islanders and the Arrival of the British Fleet at New York Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
5 The Price of Loyalty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
Appendix 1 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Appendix 2 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Appendix 3 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Keywords: Papas; traces; Staten; Islands; political; sympathies; strong; ties; with; Britain; instead; local; conditions; that; favored; status; revolutionary; change

eBook

Published: March 1, 2009
ISBN: 9780814768686