During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), management and treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) were very different from the standards of modern warfare. Modern standards, as outlined in the Geneva Conventions of later centuries, assume that captives will be held and cared for by their captors. One primary difference in the 18th century was that care and supplies for captives were expected to be provided by their own combatants or private resources.
American prisoners
King George III of Great Britain had declared American forces traitors in 1775, which denied them prisoner-of-war status. However, British strategy in the early conflict included pursuit of a negotiated settlement, and so officials declined to try or hang them, the usual procedure for treason, to avoid unnecessarily risking any public sympathy the British might still enjoy.West, Charles E., "Horrors of the prison ships: Dr. West's description of the Wallabout floating dungeons, how captive patriots fared." Eagle Book Printing Department, 1895. Great Britain's neglect, in the absence of the expected supplies from Patriots, resulted in starvation and disease. Despite the lack of formal executions, neglect achieved the same results as hanging.Andros, Thomas. "The old Jersey captive: Or, A narrative of the captivity of Thomas Andros...on board the old Jersey prison ship at New York, 1781. In a series of letters to a friend." W. Peirce. 1833.Lang, Patrick J.. "The horrors of the English prison ships, 1776 to 1783, and the barbarous treatment of the American patriots imprisoned on them." Society of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, 1939.
American prisoners of war tended to be accumulated at large sites, which the British were able to occupy for extended periods of time. New York City, Philadelphia in 1777, and Charleston, South Carolina, were all major cities used to detain American prisoners of war. Facilities there were limited. The occupying army could sometimes be larger than the total civilian population. The surgeon in charge of the New York hospitals housing American prisoners, Francis Mercier, was accused of killing them by poisoning and by assault, and he was ultimately executed for an unrelated murder. An estimated 20,000 Americans were held as prisoner during the war, with almost half dying in captivity.
The loyalist stronghold of St. Augustine, Florida, was also used by the British to detain patriot prisoners. Notable prisoners included Brigadier General Griffith Rutherford of the Salisbury District Brigade.
Prison ships The British used obsolete, captured, or damaged ships as prisons.Dring, Thomas and Greene, Albert. "Recollections of the Jersey Prison Ship" (American Experience Series, No 8). Applewood Books. November 1, 1986. Conditions were appalling, and many more Americans died of neglect in imprisonment than were killed in battle.Banks, James Lenox. "Prison ships in the Revolution: New facts in regard to their management." 1903. While the Continental Army named a commissary to supply them, the task was almost impossible. Elias Boudinot, as one of the commissaries, was competing with other agents seeking to gather supplies for Washington's army at Valley Forge. Historian Edwin G. Burrows writes that "by the end of 1776, disease and starvation had killed at least half of those taken on Long Island and perhaps two-thirds of those captured at Fort Washington – somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 men in the space of two months."Burrows, Edwin G. (2008). Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War. Basic Books, New York. . p. 64.
During the war, at least 16 hulks, including the infamous HMS Jersey, were placed by British authorities in the waters of Wallabout Bay off the shores of Brooklyn, New York as a place of incarceration for many thousands of American soldiers and sailors from about 1776 to about 1783. The prisoners of war were harassed and abused by guards who, with little success, offered release to those who agreed to serve in the British Navy.Taylor, George. "Martyrs To The Revolution In The British Prison-Ships In The Wallabout Bay." (originally printed 1855) Kessinger Publishing, LLC. October 2, 2007. .Hawkins, Christopher. "The life and adventures of Christopher Hawkins, a prisoner on board the 'Old Jersey' prison ship during the War of the Revolution." Holland Club. 1858. Over 10,000 American prisoners of war died from neglect. Their corpses were often tossed overboard but sometimes were buried in shallow graves along the eroding shoreline.
Many of the remains became exposed or were washed down and recovered by local residents over the years and later interred nearby in the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument at Fort Greene Park, once the scene of a portion of the Battle of Long Island. Survivors of the British prison ships include the poet Philip Freneau, Congressmen Robert Brown and George Mathews. Mathews was involved in extensive advocacy efforts to improve the prison conditions on the ships.
The American Revolution was an expensive war, and lack of money and resources led to the horrible conditions of British prison ships. The climate of the South worsened the difficult conditions. The primary cause of death in prison ships was disease, as opposed to starvation. The British lacked decent and plentiful medical supplies for their own soldiers and had even fewer reserved for prisoners. Most American POWs who survived incarceration were held until late 1779, when they were exchanged for British POWs. Prisoners who were extremely ill were often moved to hospital ships, but poor supplies obviated any distinction between prison and hospital ships.Ranlet, Philip.
Prison laborers and other prisoners of the British American prisoners were also housed in other parts of the British Empire. Over 100 prisoners were employed as forced laborers in coal mines in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; they later chose to join the Royal Navy to secure their freedom.Thomas, Evan. John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy. Simon and Schuster, pages 67,74 Other American prisoners were kept in England (Portsmouth, Plymouth, Liverpool, Deal, and Weymouth), Ireland, and Antigua. By late 1782, England and Ireland housed over 1,000 American prisoners, who, in 1783, were moved to France prior to their eventual release.Lindsay, William R. Treatment of American Prisoners During the Revolution. Emporia State Research Studies Kansas State Teachers College, Volume 23, Number 1
Continental Army prisoners of war from Cherry Valley were held by Loyalists at Fort Niagara near Niagara Falls, New York and at Fort Chambly near Montreal.Campbell, William W.: Annals of Tyron County; or, the Border Warfare of New-York during the Revolution, J. & J. Harper, New York (1831) pp. 110–11, 182, regarding prisoners (i.e., Lt. Col. William Stacy) held at Fort Niagara.McHenry, Chris: Rebel Prisoners at Quebec 1778-1783, Being a List of American Colonists were Held by the British during the Revolutionary War, Lawrenceburg, Indiana (1981).
British, Hessian, and Loyalist prisoners
American laws of war During the American Revolution, some officers from the Continental Army attempted to put the laws of war into practice regarding prisoners of war. The Americans believed that all captives should be taken prisoner. On September 14, 1775, Washington, commander of the Northern Expeditionary Force, at camp in Cambridge, Massachusetts, wrote to Colonel Benedict Arnold: "Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]... I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require."The torture report represents a heartbreaking decline in America's values
After winning the Battle of Trenton on the morning of December 26, 1776, Washington found himself left with hundreds of Hessian troops who had surrendered to the Americans. Washington ordered his troops to take the prisoners in and "treat them with humanity," which they did. "Let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren who have fallen into their hands," Washington said. The official stance in the capturing of enemy troops was one of mercy.
Grievances Edward G. Burrows remarks that although British and Hessian captives did "fare better on the whole than their American counterparts," there were nevertheless "instances of outrageous cruelty" against them,Burrows, Edward G. (2008). Forgotten Patriots, p. 190. that "certain state governments had particularly bad records of prisoner abuse",Burrows, Edward G. (2008). Forgotten Patriots, p. 188. and that there were "numerous... complaints over the years from enemy prisoners about bad food, squalor and physical abuse."Burrows, Edward G. (2008). Forgotten Patriots, p. 187. The treatment of prisoners of war varied from state to state. Provisions among the prisoners also varied but generally ranged from mediocre to bad in the last years of the war.
British and German prisoners The British and the Germans shared similar and differing experiences as POWs. The Continental Congress's policies on the treatment of POWs remained the same for all enemy combatants, and so the prisoner system was generally the same for the two nationalities. However, the British troops were valued more than the German mercenaries and thus there are many more examples of British prisoner exchanges than German.
Americans grew to hate the British more than the better-behaved Germans. The British were more likely to cause disturbances, get into fights, and oppose the guards and the militia, having been more invested in the defeat of the Americans than the Germans were.Dabney, William M. (1954). After Saratoga: The Story of the Convention Army. The University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. p. 39-46.
Loyalists Loyalists were the most hated POWs. The Continental Congress took the stance that since prisoners of war were enemy combatants, not criminals, the treatment of POWs differed from criminals. However, depending on the state, Loyalists were often treated more like criminals than POWs. Debate waged throughout the colonies whether to treat Loyalists as enemy soldiers or treasonous citizens.Metzger, Charles H. (1962). The Prisoner in the American Revolution. Loyola University Press, Chicago. . p. 31-63.
Prison towns There were very few American prisons because the Thirteen Colonies and the Continental Congress were not in a position to create new ones to imprison British and German soldiers. Instead, Congress sent most British and Hessian prisoners to local American towns and ordered local officials to hold them under strict parole.
The Continental Congress had the sole authority to decide where the prisoners went, and the local towns had little forewarning and no say in the matter. Prison towns found themselves with the burden of providing for hundreds or thousands of prisoners at a time. In towns that could not afford to feed prisoners, the prisoners were put to work to feed themselves. British and German prisoners cultivated gardens; worked for farms and craftsmen; and found other forms of unskilled labor. Local communities attempted to make prison towns as profitable as possible and often helped prisoners find jobs or sent them to other towns and states for work.
The more useful the prisoners of war were, the less economically burdensome they were on the town. A town unable to erect barracks for the prisoners was forced to house them in community churches and even citizens' homes. The Continental Congress's forcing of Americans to quarter prisoners was a major source of contention among the people.