Peter Oliver (loyalist)

Oliver supported the idea that colonists should be taxed and more effort should be put into preventing smuggling to pay for the French and Indian War.

Originally starting in 1765, the Sons of Liberty used threats and violence as a tool to manipulate the actions of Peter Oliver and his brother Andrew.

Thomas Hutchinson was pleased with the work that Peter Oliver did, and made him chief justice of the Superior Court in 1772.

Oliver essentially argues that the Rebellion is illegal and destined to fail and that the Massachusetts troops have been lied to by their officers about the potential for success against Great Britain, which he characterizes as the "mildest government to live under."

In 1781, the year in which Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, thereby effectively ending the military struggle in the Colonies, Oliver wrote a bitter denunciation of the Revolution, targeting those who inflamed the populace against the British, entitled "Origin & Progress of the American Rebellion," which is important because Oliver articulates the views of many Loyalists, especially those who were born in the Colonies and lost everything when they fled to Great Britain.