How did colonial New Hampshire treat loyalists?

Answer 1

That would have depended on your status within the Colony. You might be:

1. An aristocrat.
2. A government official.
3. A Freedman.
4. An indentured servant.
5. A slave.

And even within those classifications there was a hierarchy. A Freedman might gain more respect simply because of the nature of their employment with a mason or shipwright carrying a higher social status then a brick maker or farmer. The same would hold true among indentured servants with the butcher or baker seeming of a higher calling then a swineherd or a tanner.

Even among slaves a house servant held status above a field hand.

Answer 2

The American Revolution (the seeds of it) were planted/started in New Hampshire. While most assume Boston and Massachusetts with the spark of the revolution, the very first town to support and promote the rebellion against England was Exeter, New Hampshire.

Loyalists in New Hampshire weren't the problem. It was the other way around. A loyalist had no one to be accountable to or fear threats of treason. Loyalists often held the upper hand in that all they needed to do was turn in a rebel to the local constabulary, run by the British, and the rebel was arrested and often hanged. There was more to fear from loyalists than the other way around.


That being said, loyalists were often found to bear the brunt of the rebellion in other ways. Loyalist store owners were boycotted and sometimes their shops mysteriously burned. There was continued sharp derision between rebel and loyalist all throughout the war. When redcoats came through a town, loyalists would inform on local rebels, having the rebels, their families and even associates arrested or worse. When redcoats were driven out of a town, rebels often sacked loyalist homes and businesses taking supplies and goods as they needed.


All in all it was a two way street, but eventually loyalists died out - either literally or they moved to Canada or went back to England as the United States was formed.