North of America: Loyalists, Indigenous Nations, and the Borders of the Long American Revolution

The United States was created by a complex and surprising story of patriots, Indigenous peoples, loyalists, visionaries, and scoundrels, with Upper Canada, Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the homelands that straddled colonial borders being far less foreign to the men and women who established it than Canada is to those who live there now. Loyalists and Indigenous leaders frustrated Patriot ambitions, defended their territory, and acted as midwives to the birth of the United States while restricting and redirecting its continental aspirations.

Format: Hardback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 18 October 2022
Publisher: Yale University Press

The complex and surprising story of the United States' creation is a tale of patriots, Indigenous peoples, loyalists, visionaries, and scoundrels. The well-known struggle of the Thirteen Colonies for independence from Britain is familiar to every American schoolchild. However, at the onset of the Revolutionary War, there were more than thirteen British colonies in North America. Patriots found themselves surrounded by Indigenous homelands and loyal provinces, and the pursuit of independence had its limits.

Upper Canada, Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the homelands that straddled colonial borders were far less foreign to the men and women who established the United States than Canada is to those who live here today. These northern neighbors were far from inactive during the Revolution. The participation of the loyal British provinces and Indigenous nations that largely rejected the Revolution—as antagonists, opponents, or bystanders—shaped the progress of the conflict and influenced the early development of the American nations.

In this book, historian Jeffers Lennox takes a northward gaze, as many Americans did at that time, and explores how Loyalists and Indigenous leaders frustrated Patriot ambitions, defended their territories, and acted as midwives to the birth of the United States while restricting and redirecting its continental aspirations.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300226126