“The oppostition to parliment will undo us” – Jonathan Sayward, January 20, 1774 

The question of loyalty concerned all New Englanders as political tensions worsened between the colonies and Great Britain. While most New England colonists supported America’s right to self-governance, many remained conflicted about the prospect of a civil war, and a vocal minority made it clear they would continue to support the Crown’s authority.

Discussion and debates over loyalty took place not only in taverns, churches, and meetinghouses, but also in the home. Families found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, leading to separation and heartbreak. Meanwhile, enslaved members of households broke their involuntary bonds of servitude to enlist in the army and gain their freedom. The objects in this gallery explore the various meanings of loyalty during the American Revolution and show how colonists navigated a new political landscape. 

Timeline of Events

May 10, 1773 – The Tea Act  

British Parliament passes the Tea Act to aid the struggling British East India Company. The act allows them to undercut their Dutch competitor’s prices and effectively creates a monopoly in the colonies. Colonists see this move as yet another governmental overreach, stripping them of freedom of choice and subjecting them to more taxation. Tensions continue to rise. 

December 16, 1773 – The Boston Tea Party  

A group of men, predominantly comprised of members of the Sons of Liberty, dump 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor in protest of British Parliament’s levying of taxes in the colonies, despite growing protest from colonists. Parliament retaliates with the Intolerable Acts, which are designed to make an example out of Massachusetts ’ colonists by further restricting their freedoms.  

April 18, 1776 – Revere and Dawes Ride at Midnight  

More famously known as Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride, Paul Revere and William Dawes rode out on the night of April 18th, after discovering that the British military planned to capture leaders of the revolutionary cause.  They rode out to Lexington and Concord, the night before the official start of the Revolutionary War, to alert the militia ahead of the British troops. 
 

April 19, 1775 – Battle of Lexington and Concord 

British troops march into Massachusetts, intending to seize weapons and supplies and suppress insurrectionists. Colonists are forewarned, and the expected skirmish turns into the first battle of the Revolutionary War. 
 

June 17, 1775 – Battle of Bunker Hill 

Colonists in Massachusetts are joined by militia from all over New England to defend their position in Charlestown. Although the battle is lost by the Revolutionary forces, the British Army sustains heavy losses in men and morale. Despite actually taking place on Breed’s Hill, the battle is commonly referred to as taking place on the nearby Bunker Hill. 

Jonathan Sayward

Jonathan Sayward (1713-1797) enjoyed a genteel life in York, Maine, occupying roles in local government and representing York in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He came under fire in 1768 after voting to rescind a letter circulated by his fellow representatives to other colonial legislatures asking them to join the protest against British Parliament.

In his diary, Sayward warned that agitating Britain “would bring the full weight of ministerial vengeance on this province.” While he personally disagreed with Parliament’s actions, Sayward wished to avoid a civil war. He was also distressed by the escalating violence of the Sons of Liberty, who mobbed anyone they viewed as a Loyalist —including him.

After war broke out, Sayward suffered numerous blows, including “loss of trade,” “the scorn of the abject slight of friends,” and “all my offices . . . taken from me.” Confined to his home in York (Historic New England’s Sayward-Wheeler House), Sayward watched in disbelief as America became an independent nation. “It’s all beyond my depth, I am lost in wonder,” he wrote in July 1776.

Behind the Exhibition

The people who witnessed and participated in the American Revolution are often viewed through a series of binaries: American/British or Patriot/Loyalist, just to name a few. Yet, in eighteenth-century New England—as in the rest of the colonies—such lines were not as neatly drawn. American colonists were British subjects, not only in custom and culture, but in their political identities. Declaring independence and going to war with Britain because of disputes over taxes and governance was, for many New Englanders, a worrisome idea. Yet, as revolutionary sentiments continued to grow among the colonists, those who resided somewhere in the middle of the partisan spectrum were not always able to remain neutral. It was often the case that anyone who registered their opposition to the work of the Sons of Liberty and the Provincial Congress was branded as a Loyalist and had their lives derailed or even destroyed. Almost overnight, a well-respected member of a community could become an enemy of the state.

Such was the case with Jonathan Sayward (1713-1797), a mariner and trader who held prominent political positions in his town of York, Maine, and served as the representative from York to the General Court. Sayward was also a veteran of the Seven Years’ War who took part in the Siege of Louisbourg in 1744. Jonathan Sayward’s diary (held by the American Antiquarian Society) and household furnishings at Historic New England’s Sayward-Wheeler House in York help us tell the story of a successful entrepreneur and respectable government official who lost almost everything because of his political sympathies. His experience of persecution at the hands of his fellow colonists provides a different perspective on the American Revolution.

Prince and Dinah's Story

Prince (1749-1789) was one of three identified men enslaved by Jonathan Sayward in York, Maine, along with Cato and Boneto. In 1780, at the age of thirty-one, Prince married Dinah, an enslaved woman who worked at the nearby Robert Rose Tavern. The following year, Prince enlisted in the Continental Army. He purchased his freedom from Sayward with support from unknown individuals referred to as “the Friends of Prince Sayward.” Prince served in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment as a waiter (personal servant) to Major Samuel Darby.

After the war, Prince returned to York and lived with Dinah until his death of consumption in 1789. Dinah never remarried, and in 1836, she applied for a widow’s pension under the name Dinah Prince.

The application included statements from Nathaniel Donnell and Olive Harmon, members of the community, testifying to Dinah and Prince’s marriage and to Prince’s service. Dinah signed these papers with her mark, the only surviving documentation she left behind. She received her pension in 1838, at age 90.

The Otis Family

Among the calls for American independence, some of the loudest voices belonged to the prominent Otis family of Boston. James Otis Jr. (1725-1783) was one of the earliest colonial legislators to protest British Parliament, and his brother, Samuel Allyne Otis (1740-1814), became the first Secretary of the US Senate. Their sister Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814) was a playwright and poet who infused her writings with political messages.  

Samuel and James Otis each married into wealthy merchant families and their wives, Elizabeth Gray (1746- 1779) and Ruth Cunningham (1729- 1789), were Loyalists. Samuel and Elizabeth’s marriage suffered as Elizabeth mourned the loss of family and friends who fled to England during the war. Despite the divided loyalties of their respective families, Samuel and Elizabeth Otis had what appeared to be a loving and affectionate marriage. In a letter to his father-in-law Harrison Gray, Otis wrote about his late wife: “As she lived a saint, she died an Angel.”  

By contrast, James Otis and Ruth Cunningham Otis endured a bitterly unhappy marriage by all accounts. James Otis fought for American independence while his wife supported the colonies remaining under British rule. Their children were equally divided. The discord between James and Ruth Otis was known to many, including John Adams, who recalled Otis describing his wife as “a good wife, too good for him – but she was a tory, a high Tory.” Mercy Otis Warren was less charitable. In one letter to a friend, she called her sister-in-law a “Weak, Infatuated Woman who has heretofore Brought innumerable Difficulties upon her own Family.” If Ruth Otis wrote about the revolution or her husband, those letters remain undiscovered. James Otis died unexpectedly of a lightning strike in 1783, and Ruth Otis lived to see America become an independent nation. 

Behind the Exhibition

The question of loyalty concerned all New Englanders as political tensions worsened between the colonies and Great Britain. While most White New England colonists supported America’s right to self-governance, many remained ambivalent about the prospect of a civil war, and a vocal minority made it clear they would continue to support the Crown’s authority.  Discussion and debates over loyalty took place not only in taverns, churches, and meetinghouses, but also in the home. Families found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, leading to separation and heartbreak.

Such was the case with the Otis family of Boston, whose members were among the strongest advocates for revolution. James Otis Jr. (1725-1783) was one of the earliest colonial legislators to protest British Parliament, and his brother, Samuel Allyne Otis (1740-1814), became the first Secretary of the United States Senate. Their sister Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814) was a playwright and poet who infused her writings with political messages.

Through the Looking Glass

By its history, this extraordinary looking glass belonged to John Cogswell (1738-1818) and his wife Abigail Gooding (1740-1782). After the British Army evacuated Boston in 1776, a newly formed committee under the Massachusetts House of Representatives began to seize and auction the contents of estates abandoned by Loyalists. John and Abigail attended one of these auctions and purchased this looking glass, which descended in the family.

The size and style of this looking glass, with its mirror glass paneling, makes it a rare and uncommon survival from colonial New England.

Throughout its history, the looking glass underwent numerous rounds of conservation treatment. The original reflective surface, made with tin-mercury amalgam, was re-silvered in the nineteenth century. Several of the mirrored border panels were repaired and the bottom central mirror pane was replaced.

Further testing and analysis suggests the looking glass was made in Europe, probably Germany, in the mid-eighteenth century. Its original owner was likely someone with tremendous wealth and influence to transport such a fragile and expensive item to America.

Behind the Exhibition

Preliminary Research

Last year, I was approached by a donor who had an extraordinary object in her home: a large looking glass with a scrolled and etched mirrored frame. The central portion is composed of two large sheets of mirror with a one-inch bevel (slanted edge) around the perimeter. This is typical of mid-eighteenth-century looking glasses, or what is commonly referred to as the Queen Anne style (ca.1740-60).

This piece instantly drew my curiosity, for a few reasons. Foremost was its magnificent size and elegant details, such as the leaf and floral engravings along the twelve mirrored and scalloped sections of the frame. I wondered if it was made in Venice, Italy, where specialized glassmakers in Murano had produced highly coveted looking glasses since the fifteenth century. Perhaps it was British and made in the Venetian style?

Explore More

The next page is Gallery 3.