When the American Revolution ended, a new nation was born. The Thirteen Colonies, which had belonged to Britain, became the independent United States of America.
The first shots of the war were fired in 1775, and the struggle didn’t end until 1783. Many of the colonists opposed independence. They remained faithful to Britain and called themselves Loyalists. The rebels, who wanted to be free of British rule, called them Tories and treated them brutally.
All through the years of the war, Loyalist refugees made their way to Canada, where many of the men enlisted in regiments called Provincial Corps of the British Army. Some of the Loyalists who remained in the colonies joined the British forces in Florida or New York. There were many bloody battles, and life in the Colonies was hard. Bands of terrorists, both Loyalist and rebel, roamed the countryside burning houses and crops, kidnapping men, and mistreating women and children.
When the war finally ended, many of the Loyalists were still in their homes. They hoped that the victorious rebels would let bygones be bygones, but the persecution continued.
More Loyalists fled their homes, taking only the few possessions they could carry with them. Caleb Seaman was a Loyalist who escaped from New York State in 1789 with his wife Martha and their eight children.
Before I could tell the story of the Seamans’ journey, I had to retrace the route they followed and see that part of New York State for myself. Most of the Indian trail is now a highway, but the hills are still steep and the rivers are still hazardous with rapids and waterfalls. The dense forest is now rolling farmland, and some of the place names have changed. The Kahuago is the Black River. Fort Oswegatchie is Ogdensburg, Buell’s Bay is Brockville, Coleman’s Corners has become the village of Lyn.
Escape is a personal story. The house in Rockport where Caleb and Martha Seaman spent their last days is the one in which my grandfather, Thomas Seaman, was born. Caleb and Martha were my great-great-great grandparents.