Following the American Revolution, more than 20,000 loyalists fled to Nova Scotia, doubling the population in a single year. Neil MacKinnon provides the first detailed account of this great wave of immigrants, their exodus and settlement, their adjustment to the new land, and their effect upon its people and institutions.

Loyalists in Nova Scotia hoped that their anticipated prosperity, to be achieved with British aid, would show that the American rebellion had been a terrible mistake. But prosperity was elusive. The loyalists were disappointed not only by their treatment at the hands of the British government - their reluctant benefactor - but also by the apparent unwillingness of the government and the people of Nova Scotia to recognise their sacrifice and encourage their advancement. This sense of opposition from the existing community made their experience different from that of loyalists elsewhere and contributed to the intensity and longevity of Nova Scotia's loyalist tradition.

The early period of loyalist settlement came to a close shortly after Britain gained portable pensions and withdrew free provisions, a turn of events which led many of the exiles to return to their homeland. By 1791 relations with the old settlers and the provincial government, changing attitudes toward the United States, and conflict among themselves had modified loyalist opinions and expectations in ways they would never have imagined a decade earlier.