United Empire Loyalists

Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the British Empire during the American Revolution (1775-1783). Their ranks included Thomas Ingersoll, father of Canadian heroine Laura Secord.

Loyalists were praised in Canadian schools' history classes when Canada was ruled by Britain before the Great War. After the United States drove the British out of Canada during that war, they introduced their own version of history, in which loyalists were villified. Arthur McGregor withdrew his children from the schools in protest.