The British planned to crush the rebellion by force. At first glance, the British had an overwhelming advantage in the war. They had the strongest navy in the world; an experienced, well-trained army; and the wealth of a worldwide empire. Britain also had a much larger population than the United States – over 8 million people in Britain compared to only 2.5 million in the United States. Still, other Americans remained loyal to Britain. Those who remained loyal to Britain and opposed the war for independence were called Loyalists or Tories. At least one American in five was a Loyalist, perhaps as many as one in three.

Some people changed sides during the war, depending on which army was closer. Loyalist strength varied strongest in the Carolinas and Georgia and weakest in New England. Loyalists supported Britain for different reasons. Some remained loyal because they were members of the Anglican Church. Some depended on the British for their jobs. Many feared the disorder that would come from challenging the established government. Others simply could not understand what all the commotion was about. The issue of independence disrupted normal relations. Friends and families were divided over their loyalty to Britain. For example, William Franklin, son of Patriot Benjamin Franklin, was a Loyalist who had served as a royal governor. It quickly became a war that drove long-time friendships and even families apart.

Every state had some Loyalists. Thousands of them fought with the British against the Patriots. To prove their loyalty to Britain, some Loyalists spied and informed on the Patriots. Many Loyalists, however, fled the American colonies during the Revolutionary War. They packed their belongings and sold whatever they could. Some left quickly for England, while others took off for Florida. Still others journeyed to the frontier beyond the Appalachian Mountains and to Canada. Loyalists who remained in the United States faced difficult times. Their neighbors often shunned them. Some became victims of mob violence. Loyalists who actively helped the British could be arrested and tried as traitors, and some were punished by being “tarred and feathered” – literally coated in pitch or sticky tar and rolled in chicken feathers. Patriots executed a few Loyalists, but such extreme measures were unusual. Those who fled had the land and property in the United States confiscated and taken.

Most of the Patriots believed the British would give up after losing one or two major battles. Few Patriots believed John Adams when he predicted in April 1776: “We shall have a long... and bloody war to go through.” The colonists suffered serious disadvantages. They lacked a regular army and a strong navy. American soldiers also lacked military experience, and weapons and ammunition were in short supply. Many Patriots only belonged to militia groups, local forces, and they were volunteer soldiers who fought for short periods of time before returning home. The Patriots faced another obstacle: Not all Americans supported the struggle for independence. In addition to the Loyalists, some people were neutral, taking neither side in the conflict. The Quakers, for example, would not participate in the war because they opposed all armed conflict.

The Americans possessed some advantages. They were fighting on their own ground and fought with great determination to protect it. The British, on the other hand, had to wage war in a faraway land and were forced to ship soldiers and supplies thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean. The makeup of the British army in America also helped the Patriots. The British relied on mercenaries, hired soldiers, to fight. The Americans called the mercenaries Hessians, after the region in Germany where most of them lived. To gain support for the war effort, Patriots compared their own troops, who were fighting for the freedom of their own land, to the Hessians, who fought for money. The Patriots had a much greater stake in winning the war than the hired soldiers did. This personal stake gave the Americans an edge over the Hessians in battle.

The Americans’ greatest advantage was probably their leader, George Washington. Few could match him for courage, honesty, and determination. The war might have taken a different turn without Washington steering its course. The Americans placed great value on liberty and personal freedom for citizens. After throwing off the rule of the British Parliament, they were unwilling to transfer power to their own Continental Congress. In some ways, the American Revolution was really 13 separate wars, with each state pursuing its own interests. As a result, Congress had trouble enlisting soldiers and raising money to fight the war.

Although the militia played an essential role in the Patriots’ forces, the Americans also needed a regular army, well-trained soldiers who could fight anywhere in the colonies. The Congress established the Continental Army but depended on the states to recruit, or enlist, soldiers. At first soldiers signed up for one year of army service. Washington appealed for longer terms. Eventually, the Continental Congress offered enlistments for three years or for the length of the war. Most soldiers, however, still signed up for only a year.

Some African Americans also sided with the Loyalists. At the start of the war, the British appealed to enslaved Africans to join them. Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, announced that enslaved people who fought on the British side would be freed, and many men answered his call. Eventually some of them ended up free in Canada, and others settled the British colony of Sierra Leone in Africa.

Women also fought with the Patriot forces. Margaret Corbin of Pennsylvania accompanied her husband when he joined the Continental Army. After he died in battle, she took his place. Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley also accompanied her husband in battle. The soldiers called her “Molly Pitcher” because she carried water pitchers to the soldiers. As a teenager, Deborah Sampson of Massachusetts watched her brothers and their friends go off to war. Moved by a sense of adventure, she disguised herself as a boy and enlisted.

The war changed the lives of all Americans, even those who stayed at home. With thousands of men away in military service, women took over the duties that had once been the responsibility of their husbands or fathers. Other women ran their husbands’ or their own businesses. The ideals of liberty and freedom that inspired the American Revolution caused some women to question their place in society. In an essay on education, Judith Sargeant Murray of Massachusetts argued that women’s minds are as good as those of men. Girls, therefore, should get as good an education as boys. At a time when most girls received little schooling, this was a radical idea. Abigail Adams also championed women’s interests. She wrote to her husband, John Adams, who was a member of the Second Continental Congress expressing concern that while he fought for the freedom of men, he did nothing to stop the tyranny of husbands at home.