Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

Speaker: James S. Leamon; Recorded October 2, 2012 - What were the reasons for--and the price of--loyalism during the American Revolution? James Leamon, Bates College professor of history emeritus, explores the complexities of the Loyalist stance in his new book, The Reverend Jacob Bailey Maine Loyalist: For God, King, Country, and for Self . Bailey, a former Congregational preacher, converted to the Church of England and became an Anglican missionary in Pownalborough (now Dresden). There he refused to renounce allegiance to King George or to publicize the Declaration of Independence from his pulpit. He and his family eventually were forced into exile in Nova Scotia for his beliefs, where Bailey wrote obsessively about the trauma of opposing the Revolution. Leamon relies on much of that writing--particularly journals and correspondence--to reveal how Bailey came to feel the way he did, and how revolutionary ideas clashed with more traditional convictions of order and hierarchy.