United Empire Loyalists and the Long Point Settlement

United Empire Loyalists and the Long Point Settlement. . The American Revolution (1775-1783) was an armed conflict between England and thirteen of her North American colonies. People living there had to choose to either remain loyal to the British Crown, George III, or fight to create their own independent country. In the tumultuous times at the end of the Revolution the people who had remained loyal and fought for the British were persecuted for not choosing the American side. Some were imprisoned and executed, their land and property confiscated and redistributed, and many others were forced to move to British held territory. These refugees had a variety of backgrounds, such as Dutch, French Huguenot, German, Scottish and British, but they all became known as United Empire Loyalists., Loyalists flooded into British territory in what is now known as the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Ontario. In the 1770's and 1780's thousands of Loyalists made this journey either by boat up the eastern coast or overland., John Graves Simcoe, was the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, which was established in 1791, in order to settle and govern the land in the central portion of British North America. He first came to the Long Point area in 1795 and he found the land suitable to accommodate Loyalist refugees. The land needed to be surveyed and distributed. The Long Point Settlement, which encompasses most of present day Norfolk County, was surveyed between 1796 and 1797., Loyalists and their children could petition the Crown for a parcel of land. Some of those who settled in the Long Point Settlement had previously been granted land in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. They found the land and the harsh climate difficult and so they uprooted a second time to find a new home on the north shore of Lake Erie., The Loyalists who came to this area had a wide range of backgrounds prior to the upheaval of the American Revolution. Some of them had been farmers, but others were clergy, soldiers, business people, landowners and skilled tradesmen who quickly established a life that resembled the more established communities from which they had come. The land they were allotted was mostly old growth Carolinian forest and before they could establish farms they needed to clear and plough the land. Everything needed to be built by hand; roads, homes, barns, fields, schools, churches and court-houses. At the time the Long Point Settlement was founded Toronto (or York as it was known) had only a few houses. They were alone in this new place and had only each other to rely upon., Many people in present day Norfolk County can trace their lineage to those original Loyalist families. The attitudes and values of these loyal and adventurous people is essential to understanding part of what defines Canadians to this day.