Hooray!!!!! to Linda Preston's point-if-view.
GOD grant that.......WE ALL ,at least 1/3 -2/3,are SO OPEN MINDED
-----Original Message-----
From: camp-bounces(a)rootsweb.com [mailto:camp-bounces@rootsweb.com]On
Behalf Of Linda Preston
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 11:12 AM
To: camp(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: [CAMP] John Camp (again)
I, too, would like to thank all who have contributed
so generously to this
topic. I am not an aspiring DAR member, but I have
been intrigued by this
Camp "Loyalism" issue for a few years now and
appreciate every piece of
information that might help me to better understand
their place in history
and, perhaps, even get to "know" them a little.
At the risk of re-mentioning something that I might
have missed in the Camp
list, I would like to refer those interested to an
excellent series of
articles entitled "The First Civil War" written by
Harold W. Robbins and
published by The Genealogical Society of Old Tryon,
North Carolina, in 1975.
This was shared with me some years ago by a Camp
descendant, and I am most
grateful.
The writings give us much food for thought. Robbins
tells us that the
survival of one's family and land was of primary
importance to most (much as
it is today). "Wherever the British Army encamped,
the populace was
rampantly Tory. Whenever the rebels held sway, almost
all were Whigs.
Vanishingly few chose to proclaim and fight for their
convictions in the
face of overwhelming force or the imminent threat of
persecution or death.
Rather, they did what they had to do in a hard and
cruel time." He goes on
further to describe Old Tryon County as having been
nominally Loyalists and
subjects of the King at the beginning of the war, but
as the numbers of
Whigs increased so did the number of changed
allegiances. How can we
imagine what they faced?
The list of accused "traitors" is long. It's hard to
believe that they were
all valid accusations. No doubt emotions and fear ran
high during these
times. Certainly there must have been many
guilt-by-association judgments
made. Historically we know that there were many
families of split loyalties
(some Camp lore I have heard over the years is that
Thomas locked his
Loyalist sons in the corn crib!). And one can even
imagine that an
accusation of treason may have been a convenient way
to settle a personal
grudge for some!
Robbins began his writings by reporting that President
John Adams, in 1815,
estimated that 1/3 of the American people in the
Revolutionary War remained
loyal to the King, 1/3 were "indifferent to the
struggle," and only the
remaining third were "patriotic." While these
numbers, of course, cannot be
confirmed, Robbins believed that the estimates were
well founded. If they
are even close to that, none of us would have to look
far to find a patriot
(whether DAR-identified or not), a "Loyalist," or an
ancestor who had no
loyalties at all, except, perhaps, to the cause of
survival. I would like
to think I may someday know in which "third" of the
populace my Camp
ancestors belonged, but regardless of where they stood
I am ever fascinated
by them and grateful to them . . .
Thanks again to all!
Linda Preston
Vine Grove, Kentucky
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