Ben Franklin's World - BFW Revisited: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World

In the late winter of 1775, colonists in a village outside of New York City hoisted the royal standard of King George III 75 feet into the air.

The standard raisers signed their names to a proclamation pledging to defend the king and his government. For them, defending the British crown did not mean surrender; it served as a clear statement of what it still meant to be British.

In Episode 451, we explored a court-martial trial that allowed us to see how early Americans thought about what it would mean to be an American after independence.

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