{"id":177335,"date":"2023-07-03T08:43:35","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T13:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=177335"},"modified":"2026-09-07T14:43:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T19:43:03","slug":"podcast-908-would-you-have-been-a-patriot-or-a-loyalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-908-would-you-have-been-a-patriot-or-a-loyalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #908: Would You Have Been a Patriot or a Loyalist?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Americans think back to the War of Independence, most are apt to feel that, had they lived back then, they would have been Patriots for sure. In retrospect, the decision to rebel and get out from under the thumb of British rule seems inevitable. Yet only around a third of colonists ever declared themselves as revolutionaries, and even among the country&#8217;s Founding Fathers, it wasn&#8217;t always obvious if they would stay loyal to Great Britain or become rebels, right up until the signing of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n<p>As H.W. Brands, historian, professor, and author of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/46utA7f\"><em>Our First Civil War<\/em><\/a> explains, the decision to align with the side of the Loyalists or the Patriots was complex, and not only had to do with the kinds of policy issues we often think about in regards to the war, but also personal factors related to respect and ambition. He talks about how George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were actually very unlikely Patriots and what ultimately got them to embrace the revolutionary cause, and why Franklin&#8217;s son chose differently and remained a Loyalist. We also discuss why John Adams threw in his lot with the Patriots, and why Benedict Arnold flipped sides.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Americans think back to the War of Independence, most are apt to feel that, had they lived back then, they would have been Patriots for sure. In retrospect, the decision to rebel and get out from under the thumb of British rule seems inevitable. Yet only around a third of colonists ever declared themselves [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42376,42385,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-history","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/908-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/908-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/908-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/908-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/908-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Podcast #908: Would You Have Been a Patriot or a Loyalist? | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-908-would-you-have-been-a-patriot-or-a-loyalist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #908: Would You Have Been a Patriot or a Loyalist? | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Americans think back to the War of Independence, most are apt to feel that, had they lived back then, they would have been Patriots for sure. In retrospect, the decision to rebel and get out from under the thumb of British rule seems inevitable. Yet only around a third of colonists ever declared themselves [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/culture\/history\/podcast-908-would-you-have-been-a-patriot-or-a-loyalist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-03T13:43:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-07T19:43:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/908.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett &amp; Kate McKay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett &amp; Kate McKay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-908-would-you-have-been-a-patriot-or-a-loyalist\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-908-would-you-have-been-a-patriot-or-a-loyalist\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett &amp; Kate McKay\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e4ed6cc1b40b6de48739267a953ef2b3\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #908: Would You Have Been a Patriot or a Loyalist?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-03T13:43:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-07T19:43:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-908-would-you-have-been-a-patriot-or-a-loyalist\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":215,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-908-would-you-have-been-a-patriot-or-a-loyalist\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/07\\\/908.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"History\",\"Podcast\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2023\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-908-would-you-have-been-a-patriot-or-a-loyalist\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/culture\\\/history\\\/podcast-908-would-you-have-been-a-patriot-or-a-loyalist\\\/\",\"name\":\"Podcast #908: Would You Have Been a Patriot or a Loyalist? 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