Canadian Social History

Approximately 40,000 Loyalists came to British North America from the late 1770s to mid 1790s.

The Loyalists emerged as an idealized group whose constructed history made them the founders of English Canada, and the group established for English Canadians an identity separate from that of Americans.

Values were conservative, emphasizing Canadian deference to authority, devotion to law and order, and willingness to employ the state on behalf of the common good.

Connections with British imperial sentiment of the late nineteenth century.