Treason and Disaffection

This excerpt from the biography of Jacob OVERHOLSER provides a general context for treason:

“The experience of the American revolution and the examples of the French revolution and the Irish rebellion of 1798 had made the Upper Canadian élite highly suspicious of non-loyalist American settlers, anxious about political opposition, and inflexible on the meaning of loyalty…. The heyday of the opposition, the legislative sessions of 1812, brought these ideals into conflict with the exigencies of war. Administrator Isaac Brock had grave doubts about the effect of a largely American population upon Upper Canada’s security. He feared that the war might be lost not from ‘any thing the enemy can do, but from the disposition of the people.’”

If you wish to know more about the part played by traitors in the conflict, we invite you to explore the list of biographies.