During the Revolutionary War, the British convinced the tribes in the northern colonies to attack and kill white settlers. The British wore the red uniform; therefore, enemies of that uniform were easily spotted. Some Cherokees warriors, frustrated by losing land to white people, defied the authority of older chiefs and attacked frontier settlements, but were soundly defeated by expeditions of the militia from Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas. However, in the Northern colonies, the New England Indians volunteered as minutemen for the patriots before the fighting began and joined the Army of George Washington at the siege of Boston, thereafter serving in New York, New Jersey, and Canada. The Mohawk Indians, led by Joseph Brant split the confederacy by fighting for the British troops and were eventually joined by the Cayugas, Onondagas and Senecas.
However, the Presbyterian missionary, Samuel Kirkland, was persuasive in convincing the Oneidas and Tuscaroras to side with the Americans. Ultimately, the American Revolution became a civil war for the Iroquois, as Oneidas clashed with Senecas at the Battle of Oriskany in 1777. Two years later, General John Sullivan burned forty Iroquois towns and crops. I have often wondered about the British persuaded Native Americans to fight on their side. Perhaps the British supplied them weapons.
Loyal to the British, were the Scots. Oddly, the Scots supported the Stuart kings against England and later fled to America because of frequent excursions with the British. Just before the Revolutionary War, a huge migration of the Macdonalds went to Moore County, North Carolina where, while onboard a vessel, sent a message to the governor requesting a large land grant (granted). In Georgia, it was the highlanders who settled Darien that were Loyalists, and ran supplies to the British. The settlers in North Carolina and Georgia knew the identify of those who sided with the British. They lived amongst them. After the war, the Macdonalds returned to Scotland, and those in Darien were named on traitor lists. Georgia Pioneers has a list of the Scottish estates confiscated in Georgia. While some Loyalists returned to England, more went to Nova Scotia and South Florida. A review of old colonial deeds and wills reveals that certain Georgia settlers had sugar plantations in Barbadoes and there was a Scotland district in Barbadoes.