When fighting broke out, civilians were often the first victims in both wars. The Tories formed terrorist units and plundered and raided the territories under patriot control. The southwestern frontier areas of the colonies, like the southwestern border of Palestine, were scenes of particularly bloody terrorism. In South Carolina, the Tory leader Major William Cunningham (known as "Bloody Bill") became the Sheikh Yassin of the struggle, conducting massacres of patriot civilians. Tory and anti-Tory mob violence became common. General Sir Henry Clinton organized many guerrilla raids upon patriot territory. Loyalists also launched assassination plots, including an attempt to murder George Washington in New York in 1776. (Among the terrorists participating in that plot was the mayor of New York City.)
There were loyalist insurrections against the patriots in every colony. Tory military activity was particularly severe in the Chesapeake, on Long Island, in Delaware and Maryland, and along the Virginia coast. As violence escalated and spread, the forces of the revolution took countermeasures. Tories were tarred and feathered. Indiscriminate expulsions sometimes took place. Tory areas could be placed under martial rule, with all civil rights, habeas corpus, and due process suspended. Queens County, New York — a loyalist stronghold — was put under military administration by Continental troops, and the entire population was prohibited from traveling without special documents. General Wooster engaged in wholesale incarceration and expulsion of New York Tories. The Continental Congress called for disarming all loyalists, and for locking up the "dangerous ones" without trial. New York loyalists were exiled to Connecticut and other places; some were used in forced labor.
Loyalists were kidnapped and held hostage. In some colonies, expressing opposition to the Revolution was grounds for imprisonment. Loyalists could be excluded from certain professions, such as law; frequently, they were stripped of all property rights and had their lands confiscated. In colony after colony, Acts of Banishment forced masses of loyalists to leave their homes and emigrate. The most common destiny was the Canadian Maritimes, with others going to the British West Indies, to England, and to Australia.
