Tea at Trianon: Liberty's Exiles

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Liberty's Exiles

What became of the Tories and Loyalists? A new book explores the question.

What became of the Americans who remained devoted to the crown—sometimes called Tories but more accurately described as loyalists—after the triumph of George Washington's Continental Army? It is a relatively neglected subject, now handsomely addressed by Maya Jasanoff in "Liberty's Exiles." Basing her work on far-flung archives, Ms. Jasanoff takes us on a global voyage from North America to Europe, Africa and even India—and back again—as her subjects cross and recross the Atlantic in search of an elusive utopia. The loyalists were a multifarious group, including Virginia grandees, New York tradesmen and former black slaves, many of whom had won their freedom through service in George III's forces. Ms. Jasanoff's ability to blend structural analysis with engrossing accounts of personal experience makes "Liberty's Exiles" a highly readable book as well as an informative one.