When Long Islanders' loyalties were tested in fight for freedom

Long Islanders were content with the political situation of the early 1770s under British rule. Many areas of their lives were somewhat unrestricted, and they could act with considerable freedom. There was no incentive to alter a government that had no qualms with their autonomy.

This changed with the 1774 Coercive Acts, especially the Massachusetts Government Act, which brought that colony under parliamentary control. Many viewed the legislation as a direct threat. As in other areas throughout New York, and indeed the Eastern Seaboard, Long Islanders formed political committees to protest Parliament's attempted reorientation of the British Empire. They opposed Parliament's measures and sought to have them reversed.

Following the First Continental Congress in 1774, local committees throughout the colonies circulated the Continental Association, seeking signatures from adult white men (typically those between the ages of 16 and 60) to demonstrate support for the Continental and Provincial Congresses and the revolutionary cause. In New York, committees commonly maintained two lists: those who signed the Association and those who refused. In Suffolk County, those who declined to sign were ostracized, and beginning in the spring of 1776, non-associators had their weapons confiscated by the county militia.

While Manhattan holds a magnetic pull for Revolutionary War historians, Long Island's significance to the war has long been underappreciated. During its occupation, the population endured hardships, including confiscation of property, quartering of troops and restrictive measures imposed by the British authorities. Important communications often passed between Long Island and Connecticut, delivering key intelligence to revolutionary forces. As Charles Lee, a Continental Army general, told George Washington in early 1776, Long Island was "a more capital point than ever." Without it, he said, the British would "find it almost impossible to subsist." British forces appreciated its importance as well.

Political loyalties during the Revolutionary War were partly a creation of the region's Colonial and religious history. In the early 1600s, Puritans settled on Long Island to contain Dutch colonists in Manhattan. They used their connections to New England to secure eastern Long Island, modeling their own towns on Connecticut villages and even submitting themselves to Connecticut's government in the mid-1600s. In many ways, Long Island, especially its easternmost areas, was more like New England than like New York City, and Long Islanders formed deeper connections with Connecticut.

This strained relationship between Long Island and the rest of New York resulted in many homogeneous communities that promoted New England lifestyle and religion, with the goal of preserving local identity in the face of outside influence. 

The struggle against outside influence reached a head during the Revolution.

The Declaration of Independence was read publicly throughout Long Island on July 22, 1776, mobilizing residents. In Huntington, for example, crowds gathered on the village green to witness the spectacle. Most of Long Island supported the Revolution, but circumstances soon changed. The British targeted New York City and Long Island, and Long Island militias that participated in the Battle of Long Island (also known as the Battle of Brooklyn) could do little to prevent the invasion. Between July and September 1776, over 300 Royal Navy ships, hundreds of cannons and over 40,000 soldiers, sailors and marines arrived in New York. The Americans were overwhelmed.

On Aug. 29, the British occupied Long Island and New York City. At Washington's war council on that date, it was "Unanimously agreed" that U.S. forces would "Leave Long Island & Its Dependencies." The British Army recognized Long Island's significance for several reasons, beginning with its strategic location. Manhattan was a major commercial center and had become the center of British military operations in North America. Long Island provided a natural barrier to protect the city from attacks, and it allowed the British to control access to key waterways. Its fertile farmland and agricultural output proved valuable to the troops.

British officials also believed Long Island contained a substantial loyal population, and they moved quickly after the invasion to turn that perceived loyalty into practical support through oaths, proclamations, militia recruitment and the restoration of royal authority.

Aside from New York City, Long Island was occupied by the British for longer than any other area in the rebelling 13 colonies turned states. And no other area in the colonies was put under martial law for longer than Long Island. It became a cornerstone of British strategy during the war, a vital asset in their efforts to suppress the rebellion.

Writing to Washington on Sept. 11, 1776, from Connecticut, Lt. Col. Henry Beekman Livingston detailed how the British were neutralizing any threats on Long Island, at least in theory, by administering an oath of allegiance. He said people in East Hampton and Southampton had "almost universally taken the Oath of Allegiance" to King George III.

The substantial freedom Long Islanders once enjoyed had evaporated. Two years later, in 1778, British Gov. William Tryon conducted a more systematic oath campaign in Suffolk County, producing a surviving list of 2,677 Long Islanders who swore allegiance or peaceful behavior to the Crown.

Back in 1776, John Adams offered a bleak assessment in a letter to Samuel Cooper, a Boston minister and Patriot ally, on Sept. 4: "Our Generals, I fear have made a Mistake in Retreating from Long Island. I fear they will retreat from the City of New York next."

Yet Adams, who later became the United States' second president, wasn't giving up despite the "disagreable Events."

"But let not these Things discourage," he wrote. "If they get Possession of New York, Long Island, and Staten Island—these are more Territory than their whole Army can defend—this Year. They must keep their Force together. The instant they divide it they are ruined."

This guest essay reflects the views of Christopher F. Minty and John Cording, and is adapted from their chapter on "Long Island Loyalties" in "Fire and Freedom: The American Revolution in New York," edited by Thomas S. Wermuth, Devin Lander, Jennifer Lemak and Robert Chiles, a Three Hills book published by Cornell University Press.