AMERICA VS. THE BRITISH
Patriots, also known as Revolutionaries, Continentals, Rebels, or American Whigs, were those colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution. The most prominent leaders of the Patriots are referred to today by Americans as the Founding Fathers of the United States.
The Patriots came from many different backgrounds. Among the most active of the Patriots group were highly educated and fairly wealthy individuals. However, without the support of the ordinary men and women, farmers, lawyers, merchants, seamstresses, homemakers, shopkeepers, and ministers, the struggle for independence would have failed.
The Patriots thought morality was on their side because the British government had violated the constitutional rights of Englishmen.
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men; Patriots called them "persons inimical to the liberties of America". The American Revolution was a civil war based on who would rule in the Thirteen Colonies.
Families were often divided as war forced colonists to choose sides in a conflict that remained for many years uncertain. Colonists, especially recent arrivals, often felt themselves to be both American and British, subjects of the King, still owing a loyalty to the mother country.
Loyalists were older, better established, and more likely to resist innovation than the Patriots. Loyalists said the Crown was the legitimate government and resistance to it was morally wrong.
PATRIOTS LOYALISTS