How did you get to be a spy during the American Revolution?

Question

I need to find out how people became spies during the American Revolution. I also need to know what the spies did while they were spying on the loyalists.

Answer 1

How did I get to be a spy? I am pretty old, but not that old.
The spies did not necessarily spy on the loyalists, but on the British troops. There was quite a network of them. Some were women, and even children.
They watched the movements of the British from one place to another and reported their numbers and the direction they were heading. They communicated by word of mouth or by letters which were carefully encoded. Some even infiltrated the British army. Many spies were caught and hanged.
The British had their spies here, also.
There is a good website at
http://www.si.umich.edu/spies/index-stories.html
and you get a star for a great question.

Answer 2

~Benedict Arnold got tired of doing the grunt work and getting no recognition for his prowess as a battlefield commander, strategist and tactician, so he decided to return to the fold of his rightful sovereign and government - for a few bucks.

Of course, spying at the time wasn't considered gentlemanly and spies were looked down upon, so there were no organized national intelligence agencies. Most of them were freelancers, some because they believed in a cause and wanted to do something for it, but most because there was money to be made.