The Disaffected: Britain's Occupation of Philadelphia during the American Revolution by Aaron Sullivan

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Disaffected: Britain's Occupation of Philadelphia during the American Revolution by Aaron Sullivan Kimberly Nath (bio) Keywords Philadelphia, American Revolution, British Occupation, Loyalists The Disaffected: Britain's Occupation of Philadelphia during the American Revolution. By Aaron Sullivan. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019. Pp. 304. Cloth, $39.95. Philadelphia and its significance in the American Revolution has been long acknowledged and studied, but the existing scholarship has lacked focus on the period of British occupation and those individuals without strong political attachments. In The Disaffected: Britain's Occupation of Philadelphia during the American Revolution, Aaron Sullivan provides an in-depth, thorough overview of the nine-month occupation of the city and offers a look at individuals whom he terms "disaffected." He defines the term carefully and cautiously in his introduction, noting that these individuals should be best understood as those whose "defining feature was less loyalty to than lack of support or affection for either party in the dispute" (7). Sullivan's eloquently written work convincingly argues that we must consider these disaffected individuals to understand not only the complex period of British occupation in Philadelphia but also the political landscape that developed in the aftermath and endured throughout the remainder of the American Revolution. More recent studies by Maya Jasanoff, Judith Van Buskirk, Ruma Chopra, and Thomas Allen have revived loyalist studies and complicated our historical understanding of the patriot and loyalist divide. Van Buskirk and Chopra, in particular, looked at day-to-day affairs and movement in another occupied city: New York. However, these studies have focused less on those who actively chose not to take sides and the implications of that decision. Sullivan shifts our focus to Philadelphia [End Page 329] and argues that by looking at this group of people without a strong political attachment, "we can see how the British occupation and the ever-shifting nature of the Revolution affected the people of the Delaware Valley" (6). Disaffection, as Sullivan argues, varied greatly among individuals. Yet he shows how all disaffected individuals were persecuted in the American Revolution because lack of allegiance, to either side, had great consequences at the beginning and throughout the war. Sullivan illuminates these distinctive circumstances with vignettes that pepper his broader narrative of the occupation. The Disaffected proceeds chronologically through chapters titled consent, invasion, siege, occupation, evacuation, and the aftermath of the British in Philadelphia. Chapter interludes, however, offer short stories about disaffected individuals impacted by the events of occupation. These interludes contain familiar names, but less familiar stories. For example, the interlude between Chapters 4 and 5 tells the story of Philadelphian Elizabeth Drinker and the relationship she developed with Major J. Crammond, after he moved into her home during British occupation. Narratives about the Drinkers, Allens, and Whitalls all interject the broader narrative with a cast of characters and enrich, rather than detract from, the overall argument about the varied behavior of individuals in Philadelphia during the American Revolution. Furthermore, Sullivan masterfully tells the story of British occupation in a comprehensible fashion, distilling complex events of the invading of the Elk River and the success of British troops along with the failures of George Washington and his army. A great strength is in telling this story in conjunction with the occupation of Philadelphia. Many are familiar with the early military campaigns of the Revolutionary War, but here Sullivan succeeds in discussing the profound effect these failures had in the city. Because George Washington and his army "failed to isolate Philadelphia from the surrounding countryside, much less in forcing the British to choose between starvation and retreat, the Continental crack-down in 1778 did have a profound, if unintended, effect on the local populace" (115). This led to harsher treatment of individuals who did not abide by legislation requiring oaths of allegiance, such as the Test Act, and punishments such as "confiscations, destructions, arrests, imprisonments, whippings, and executions carried out by the continental army and the Pennsylvania militia began to slowly but steadily alienate more civilians in the Delaware Valley" (115). Sullivan concludes by discussing the aftermath of British occupation, arriving at the conclusion [End Page 330] that while "the weeks and months following the British...