Three Peoples, One King: Loyalists, Indians, and Slaves in the American Revolutionary South, 1775-1782

Three Peoples, One King explores the contributions and conjoined fates of Loyalists, Indians, and slaves who stood with the British Empire in the Deep South colonies during the American Revolution. Challenging the traditional view that British efforts to regain control of the southern colonies were undermined by a lack of local support, Jim Piecuch demonstrates the breadth of loyal assistance provided by these three groups in South Carolina, Georgia, and East and West Florida. Piecuch attributes the ultimate failure of the Crown's southern campaign to the ruthless program of violent suppression of Loyalist forces carried out by the revolutionaries and to Britain's inability to capitalize fully on the support available.
Other studies have assessed the stance of white Loyalist militias and the efforts of revolutionaries to woo them or defeat them, but Piecuch's is the first to offer a synthetic approach to all three Loyalist populations--white, black, and Native American--in the South during this era. He subjects each of the groups to intensive investigation, making new discoveries in the histories of escaped or liberated slaves and of still-powerful Indian tribes, and in the bitter legacies of white loyalism. Aided by thirty-four illustrations and maps, Piecuch's pathbreaking study will appeal to scholars and students of American history as well as Revolutionary War enthusiasts.