"This study analyzes loyalism in a local setting, specifically in Virginia in the Eastern shore counties of Accomack and Northhampton, and at Norfolk Borough and its surrounding counties of Norfolk, Princess Anne, Isle of Wight, and Nansemond ... Local analysis of loyalism provides a new perspective on the importance of ideology in the American Revolution. Nonideological factors operated both in the behavior of loyalists and in the response of the patriots. Much activity which was labeled loyalist was based on self-serving, expedient motives ... Concerns for community stability and interpersonal harmony were often more important in determining the treatment of loyalists than was the nature of loyalist behavior or ideology"--Introduction.