Loyalists and Layabouts

“[A] thorough gallop through the town’s history, and a lovely romp it is. . . . A tale well told.”
—The Globe and Mail

“[A] remarkable story. . . . Kimber provides a vivid portrait of men and women and their struggles to make their lives over are both comic and tragic. . . . He offers a fascinating might-have-been in the history of Canada.”
—The Gazette (Montreal)

“Prodigious research, a dash of imagination and an engaging literary style make this a delightful and satisfying read and a serious contribution to Loyalist studies.”
—James W. St.G. Walker, History Professor, University of Waterloo

"Canada is built on immigration, but immigration has rarely been easy on the immigrants. In Loyalists and Layabouts Stephen Kimber explores the immigrant dream gone spectacularly wrong: how 15,000 Americans flowed into Shelburne, Nova Scotia, in 1783 to build "the envy of the American states" — only to see their aspirations ebb away like the Nova Scotia tide."
—Christopher Moore
 
"What a splendid tale, full of diverse and fascinating characters. It is also an overdue reminder of the price white Loyalists paid for the choice to remain impoverished but faithful subjects of George III. Black slaves paid an even higher price, gaining freedom at the cost of justice, equality or respect. No one who reads this book can ever again be comfortable with ancestral stereotypes."
—Desmond Morton, Hiram Mills Professor of History, Emeritus, McGill University