Patriot, Loyalist, or Neutral?

[Frodo]

Would you have thrown your lot in with the Patriots, or remained loyal to the Crown....or preferred to just stay out of it altogether?

[White Trash]

I imagine I would've been taking potshots at redcoats between swigs of whiskey on my pig farm.

[Frodo]

I don't think I'll ever really understand the fury with which American colonists reacted to the Stamp Act.  I can understand that thanks to a certain British politician during the French and Indian War, they were made to feel like equal partners in the struggle against the French, and thus reacted rather poorly when they found out that members of Parliament regarded them not as equals but as subjects.  But still, it was hardly unreasonable for Americans to give at least some share to alleviate the burden of the debt from the recent war waged in large part on their behalf.  So I am not inclined to go knee-jerk Patriot. 

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I probably would have had some ideological sympathy to the Patriot cause but wouldn't have seen myself as having enough standing within the colonies' internal power structure to sacrifice the possibility of an outside protector.

[SWE]

Given I'd be a religious minority, it'd be in my best personal interest to support the Patriots.

[Classic Conservative]

I had family who were British Loyalists from Connecticut who fled to country for Canada and I had family from Lexington, MA that fought at Lexington and Concord, but I'd be a patriot.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Given I'd be a religious minority, it'd be in my best personal interest to support the Patriots.

In retrospect yeah, but this didn't necessarily follow in the mindsets of the time.

[Santander]

I would be a Tory and very proud of it.

[JA]

Choose between being governed by a distant aristocracy and its army of corporate merchants, or a local landed aristocracy of slave owners and wealthy merchants. Choose between no voting rights and practically no representation, or a system in which only the land owning men could have any say. Choose between a revolutionary war and fanatics who had aspirations of invading Quebec to rid North America of Catholics, or a British Empire which bullied colonial subjects but assured relative peace. Choose between the people who tar and feather their opposition and raid their houses, or ones that'd fire on protesters. Both options sound pretty horrible, honestly. But, knowing me, I'd probably have been a Loyalist, distrusting the revolutionary fervor of the mob and those rich, aspiring elite who fanned the flames of war for their personal benefit.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Patriot

[Mr. Reactionary]

I imagine I would've been taking potshots at redcoats between swigs of whiskey on my pig tobacco farm.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I would be a Tory and very proud of it.

[Bigby]

I imagine I'd be a schoolmaster who turned his school into a Patriot refuge during the British occupation of Savannah.

[Kingpoleon]

Almost everybody says patriot. SHOCKING!

[Dereich]

I would be a Tory and very proud of it.

Unfortunately, this is another area where you and I agree.

[Crumpets]

I can't say with confidence, since I don't have much beyond a high school history level background on the revolution, but I imagine I would have started off as a loyalist pushing for some level of increased autonomy and switched to a revolutionary once it became clear that Britain was unwilling to accept any sort of reasonable compromise scenario.

[KoiBean]

Choose between being governed by a distant aristocracy and its army of corporate merchants, or a local landed aristocracy of slave owners and wealthy merchants. Choose between no voting rights and practically no representation, or a system in which only the land owning men could have any say. Choose between a revolutionary war and fanatics who had aspirations of invading Quebec to rid North America of Catholics, or a British Empire which bullied colonial subjects but assured relative peace. Choose between the people who tar and feather their opposition and raid their houses, or ones that'd fire on protesters. Both options sound pretty horrible, honestly. But, knowing me, I'd probably have been a Loyalist, distrusting the revolutionary fervor of the mob and those rich, aspiring elite who fanned the flames of war for their personal benefit.

Pretty much this. Obviously a lot of people would like to think they would be patriots, but there are reasons why a majority of Colonial Americans were apathetic to supporting the revolution. At the very least there is more stability and safety to remain with the British. The British also had a better idea on keeping foreign issues, whether it was indigenous tribes or other European powers, at bay. An unchained American demagogue or other tyrannical leader could have very well turned our situation much worse than we started off.

[nicholas.slaydon]

At the time I would have sided with The Empire On Which The Sun Never Set.

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

It's overwhelmingly likely that, like 90% of the colonial population at the time, everyone in this thread would have been a neutral bystander.

As a Tory and lover of lost causes, my heart at least would have been with the Crown.

[Derpist]

Loyalist. The colonies were treated reasonably fairly by England. Certainly not unreasonably enough to justify violence. The Irish had someone to complain about. Massachusetts didn't.

[Sir Mohamed]

Proud Democrat and, yes, a patriot, although I’m an immigrant. But not a nationalist, I have respect for other countries as well and still like my native, the UAE. But I prefer the US over the country of my origin.

[dead0man]

I can't say with confidence, since I don't have much beyond a high school history level background on the revolution, but I imagine I would have started off as a loyalist pushing for some level of increased autonomy and switched to a revolutionary once it became clear that Britain was unwilling to accept any sort of reasonable compromise scenario.

probably this....it's real tough to say with any certainty.  I voted and would like to think I'd be a Patriot, but I can't say for sure.

[RINO Tom]

I can't say with confidence, since I don't have much beyond a high school history level background on the revolution, but I imagine I would have started off as a loyalist pushing for some level of increased autonomy and switched to a revolutionary once it became clear that Britain was unwilling to accept any sort of reasonable compromise scenario.

probably this....it's real tough to say with any certainty.  I voted and would like to think I'd be a Patriot, but I can't say for sure.

I'll jump on board with this ... I'll also throw out that my CURRENT self (or its Eighteenth Century equivalent) would have probably ended up a Loyalist, which saddens me, but it is what it is.

Now, if you literally took everything about my background and plopped "me" back during that timeframe, I would have been a freshly immigrated mostly-German-part-Swedish, Lutheran immigrant who almost certainly would have wanted freedom from the Crown (though I imagine I'd be very, very weary of WASP thinking).

[SNJ1985]

Loyalists (I/O)

[progressive85]

Patriot-- but I wouldn't have the idea that we had to go to war to become our own country, but hey if the British military is coming over here to kill us, then...