Two weeks before General Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown, a Loyalist yeoman farmer who had fought alongside the British for six years was hanged as a spy at Schuylerville, New York before a crowd of his former friends and neighbors. Like the vast majority of the estimated 500,000 Loyalists who gambled on a British victory, Thomas Loveless and his family were ordinary people swept up by social and political forces beyond their control. Tory Spy analyzes this "Loyalist Dilemma," making use of British and American documents of the period and providing useful illustrations, maps, appendices, footnotes, and an index. A few years ago, the movie "The Patriot" starring Mel Gibson graphically portrayed Rebel-Tory warfare in the Carolinas during 1779-1780. The Rebel family in "The Patriot" was a fictional composite, but the trials of the "Loyalist" Thomas Loveless family of Albany County, New York were real. Located astride the principal invasion corridor between Canada and the U.S., and a hotbed of Rebel-Tory conflict, Albany County became a battleground between a cadre of refugee "Tory Spies" based in Canada and their Rebel former neighbors. Tory Spy offers a rare snapshot of the Revolutionary War as a multi-level conflict, in which brother fought brother, neighbor betrayed neighbor, and vague charges of espionage meant a quick route to the gallows. It is a largely untold story which offers new insights into the price paid by many of the Loyalists who were the hidden losers of America's first "civil war." This is a story for our times-it is about people responding to the pressures of revolutionary change. Their world was coming apart, and the outcome was unpredictable. Tory Spy forces the reader to ask: What would my family and I do if our neighborhood became a war zone torn apart by bloody battles and increasingly lethal intelligence warfare, and we were viewed as potential spies or combatants? Contemporary Americans may be surprised by what Tory Spy tells them about the violent social conflict that gave birth to their country. Yet the book's interwoven stories-a Loyalist farm family's struggle to survive amidst the partisan violence in Albany County, the father's British military service and later exploits as an officer in the "Tory Secret Service," and the bizarre circumstances surrounding his capture, trial, and execution-were among the harsh realities of America's Revolution. More than 230 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, these exciting stories remain part of America's revolutionary heritage, and they deserve to be told.

An “evocatively written examination” of the Americans who fought alongside the British during the American Revolution (American Spectator). The American Revolution was not simply a battle between the independence-minded colonists and the oppressive British. As Thomas B. Allen reminds us, it was also a savage and often deeply personal civil war, in which conflicting visions of America pitted neighbor against neighbor and Patriot against Tory on the battlefield, on the village green, and even in church. In this outstanding and vital history, Allen tells the complete story of the Tories, tracing their lives and experiences throughout the revolutionary period. Based on documents in archives from Nova Scotia to London, Tories adds a fresh perspective to our knowledge of the Revolution and sheds an important new light on the little-known figures whose lives were forever changed when they remained faithful to their mother country.

When George Washington beat a hasty retreat from New York City in August 1776, many thought the American Revolution might soon be over. Instead, Washington rallied—thanks in large part to a little-known, top-secret group called the Culper Spy Ring. He realized that he couldn’t defeat the British with military might, so he recruited a sophisticated and deeply secretive intelligence network to infiltrate New York. Drawing on extensive research, Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger have offered fascinating portraits of these spies: a reserved Quaker merchant, a tavern keeper, a brash young longshoreman, a curmudgeonly Long Island bachelor, a coffeehouse owner, and a mysterious woman. Long unrecognized, the secret six are finally receiving their due among the pantheon of American heroes.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Turn: Washington’s Spies, now an original series on AMC Based on remarkable new research, acclaimed historian Alexander Rose brings to life the true story of the spy ring that helped America win the Revolutionary War. For the first time, Rose takes us beyond the battlefront and deep into the shadowy underworld of double agents and triple crosses, covert operations and code breaking, and unmasks the courageous, flawed men who inhabited this wilderness of mirrors—including the spymaster at the heart of it all. In the summer of 1778, with the war poised to turn in his favor, General George Washington desperately needed to know where the British would strike next. To that end, he unleashed his secret weapon: an unlikely ring of spies in New York charged with discovering the enemy’s battle plans and military strategy. Washington’s small band included a young Quaker torn between political principle and family loyalty, a swashbuckling sailor addicted to the perils of espionage, a hard-drinking barkeep, a Yale-educated cavalryman and friend of the doomed Nathan Hale, and a peaceful, sickly farmer who begged Washington to let him retire but who always came through in the end. Personally guiding these imperfect everyday heroes was Washington himself. In an era when officers were gentlemen, and gentlemen didn’ t spy, he possessed an extraordinary talent for deception—and proved an adept spymaster. The men he mentored were dubbed the Culper Ring. The British secret service tried to hunt them down, but they escaped by the closest of shaves thanks to their ciphers, dead drops, and invisible ink. Rose’s thrilling narrative tells the unknown story of the Revolution–the murderous intelligence war, gunrunning and kidnapping, defectors and executioners—that has never appeared in the history books. But Washington’s Spies is also a spirited, touching account of friendship and trust, fear and betrayal, amid the dark and silent world of the spy.

This historic time-travel fantasy is a riveting sequel to a bestselling classic.Ten-year-old Matt Carlton and six friends are accidentally swept back in time--to Boston in 1776! The British now occupy the city, and redcoat guards are everywhere! While the boys are being held captive by a den of Patriot spies, the girls have been taken in by a wealthy Tory family.The pox is rampant; danger lies around every corner--and there's no hope for returning home to their own time. How will these seven children survive?Readers will relish the nonstop action and humorous dialogue in this riveting sequel to Woodruff's bestselling novel, GEORGE WASHINGTON'S SOCKS.

This book details British Major John André's negotiations with Benedict Arnold for West Point during the Revolutionary War. Instead of handling his mission with diplomacy and contrary to the orders of his mentor, General Henry Clinton, Andre crossed enemy lines and was captured carring incriminating papers. André was hanged by the Americans.

A reimagining of the story behind Agent 355--a New York society girl and spy for George Washington during the Revolutionary War--perfect for fans of Tatiana de Rosnay's Sarah's Key and the novels of Julie Berry. Rebellious Frannie Tasker knows little about the war between England and its thirteen colonies in 1776, until a shipwreck off her home in Grand Bahama Island presents an unthinkable opportunity. The body of a young woman body floating in the sea gives Frannie the chance to escape her brutal stepfather--and she takes it. Assuming the identity of the drowned Emmeline Coates, Frannie is rescued by a British merchant ship and sails with the crew to New York. For the next three years, Frannie lives a lie as Miss Coates, swept up in a courtship by a dashing British lieutenant. But after witnessing the darker side of the war, she realizes that her position gives her power. Soon she's eavesdropping on British officers, risking everything to pass information on to George Washington's Culper spy ring as agent 355. Frannie believes in the fight for American liberty--but what will it cost her? Inspired by the true "355" and rich in historical detail and intrigue, this is the story of an unlikely New York society girl turned an even unlikelier spy.