The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown by John Trumbull, 1797
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Maps courtesy of the Department of History,
United States Military Academy
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The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown by John Trumbull, 1797
Maps courtesy of the Department of History,
United States Military Academy
But with the British army evacuated [from Philadelphia in 1778] and the Patriots now in charge, Philadelphia Loyalists were doubly vulnerable to censure and punishment for siding with the Crown and for having consorted with the enemy. The Philadelphia Assembly Appointed [Charles Willson] Peale and four others to be Commissioners of Forfeited Estates, and for that the commissioners would receive a 5 percent commission. Peale’s group had extraordinary power to interrogate suspected traitors, break into houses, remove property, and sell off estates. Writs were issued to seize 118 estates ...