New York City during the War for Independence with Special Reference to the Period of British Occupation by Oscar Theodore Barck (review)

322 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW In telling the story of Knight and Fort Churchill, Dr. Kenney, from his positionas director of historicalresearchin the CanadianArchives, and with the assistance of the officialsof the Hudson'sBay Companyin London, has supplied a large amount of new and accurate information about the personnelof the control of the fur trade on the bay, so that for the future it will be necessary for anyone who wishesto know who were operating in the north in those early days, and what they were doing, to refer to this book. A bibliography and copiousindex add greatly to the usefulness of the book. J. B. TYRR•.LL New York City during the War for Independence with SpecialReference to the Period of British Occupation. By OSCARTI•.ODORE BARCIC. New York: Columbia University Press;London: P.S. King & Son. 1931. Pp. 267. ($4.25) NEWYoRrrwill celebratein 1933the onehundredand fiftieth anniversary of the evacuation by the British of the city that had been their headquarters during the Revolutionary War. The University of the State of New York has already published an extensive handbook of the literature of the American Revolution in New York and the present volume is probably due to ideas related to the date of 1933. It is a carefulstudy basedon adequateresearchin the great volumeof printed material. We have in it the detachedspirit that in time will, it is to be hoped,end the tradition still strongamongthe masses in the United Statesthat, during the Revolution, villainy wasall on onesideand virtue all on the other. "The Stamp Act", says Mr. Barck, "had not been passed to oppress the colonies, but to securemoneyfor their protection" (p. 27). Clearly the thing wasdonetactlesslyand New York resented it with an unanimity that disappearedlater when more than half the population was on the Loyalist side. There are similaritiesbetween societyin New York in 1775andin theotherYork in UpperCanadahalf a century later. In both caste was strong. The governingcircle and the leadersin the Church of England were the superiorclasswith a fine scornfor democracy. The rabble that burnt chestsof tea on the shore were viewed in New York with socialscornlike that in Upper Canada for the radicals who turned to armed rebellion. In successive chapters,welldocumented, Mr. Barck,in thisapparently hisfirst book,outlinesthe beginnings of the war that cameto "a peaceful city" After the captureby the British army in 1776it remainedunder military rule.There was atfirst some pillaging bythesoldiers butthe two Howes,the generaland the admiral, establishedorder. There were many well-to-doyoungofficersin the British army who requiredballs and other gaietiesfor their diversion,with the marriagesapt to follow such social intercourse. Mr. Barck has successive chapters on these and on policemeasures, health, food,fuel, trade, the press,the churches, the schools. For Canadian readersthe two concludingchapterson, "The military co-operationof the Loyalists"and "The exodusof the Loyalistsandthe return of the Americans" will have chief interest. Mr. Barck's style is REVIEWS OF BOOKS 323 not vivid; but he is careful in drawing conclusions. He showsthat the work of the Loyalist soldiershas been underestimatedand he has no sympathywith the treatment of the Loyalistsafter the war. Methods on both sidesfosteredbitterness. Each ravaged the coastsoccupied by the other. Crews from whale-boatsdescended on lonely housesand other weak points and robbed and burned. Cattle were driven off in raids by land. Mr. Barck notesthat whigsand toriessometimesmade reprobateagreements eachto let the other rob, muchas rival racketeers now may respecteach other's territory. The book hasa long list of authorities that shouldbe usefulto other writers. Though Mr. Barck gives the Winslow papers in his list of authorities he makeslittle useof the picture in them of Loyalist life in New York. The treatment of prisonerskept by the British in the hulls at New York, the causeof frantic protestand hatredby the poetFreneau, isnot mentioned. The final evacuation,with the British troopsmarching to their boats and the revolutionary soldiersfollowing closelyto their sceneof jubilation, would have lent itself to vivid description. Though Washington and Carleton, the two opposingleaders,were both in New York on that momentousday, they did not meet. We know from the Winslowpapersthat Carleton seemeddepressed,which was natural, and Washington could have had no desireto seethis anguish. Though by this evacuationthe British had formally withdrawn from the scene of...