The Times That Try Men’s Souls: The Adams, the Quincys, and the Battle for Loyalty in the American Revolution

Historian Malcolm (The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold) explores how the American Revolution was experienced as a civil war by those who lived through it in this intimate account of the “painful divisions” that pitted Patriot against Loyalist within American families. Outlining divisions among several prominent New England families, including the Adamses, Malcolm focuses on the Quincys as archetypical of the definitive break brought about by the Revolution. While Samuel Quincy’s three siblings identified openly as Patriots, he kept his Loyalist sympathies closely guarded. As Crown solicitor-general for Massachusetts, Samuel ironically became a hero to many of his fellow Americans when he oversaw the prosecution of British soldiers during the infamous Boston Massacre Trial. Shortly after hostilities commenced in 1775, however, Samuel left his Patriot wife, children, and family behind to sail to England, believing Britain would win and he would return. “Specifically singled out” by the Massachusetts banishment act of 1778, Samuel would never see America again. Writing in lean and graceful prose, Malcolm comes across as more sympathetic to the Loyalist absentees than the Patriots who banished them. It’s an eye-opening investigation into a lesser-known aspect of America’s founding. (Dec.)