Drawing from his recent book, Unfriendly to Liberty: Loyalist Networks and the Coming of the American Revolution in New York City, historian Christopher Minty, Ph.D., explores the origins of loyalism in New York City between 1766 and 1776, and adds to our understanding of the coming of the American Revolution. Focusing on political culture, organization, and patterns of allegiance, Dr. Minty demonstrates how the contending allegiances of loyalists and patriots were all but locked in place by the outset of war in 1775, and that the political alignments formed during the imperial crisis of the 1760s and 1770s provided a critical platform that made New York City a center of loyalism throughout the American Revolution.
About the Speaker
Christopher F. Minty is an editor at the Center for Digital Editing at the University of Virginia, where he contributes to the Papers of George Washington and the Naval documents of the American Revolution, among other projects. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Stirling, and his research has been supported by Harvard University, the Huntington Library, the New-York Historical Society and the New York State Archives.