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Prisoners of war in the American Revolutionary War

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During the American Revolutionary War (1775–83) the management and treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) was very different from the standards of modern warfare. Modern standards, as outlined in the Geneva Conventions of later centuries, expect captives to be held and cared for by their captors. One primary difference in the eighteenth century was that care and supplies for captives were expected to be provided by their own army, their government, or private resources.


American prisoners[edit]

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 therefore officials declined to try and/or hang them, the usual procedure for treason, to avoid unnecessarily risking any public sympathy the British might have enjoyed in the Americas. The Continental Army capture of a British army at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 resulted in thousands of British prisoners of war in the hands of the Americans. This had the effect of further dissuading British officials from hanging Colonial prisoners, despite the abandoned hopes of a settlement by this stage, as they feared reprisals on prisoners being held by the Americans. Neither policy, however, prevented the British from treating common American military members being held prisoner far more harshly than the standards of the day for POWs allowed.[2] In actuality, a malicious British neglect resulted in starvation and disease slowly and torturously achieving the same results as hanging for many American prisoners of war, or disability and inhumane suffering for most others who were not officers or otherwise likely to be useful in prisoner exchanges.[3][4]

The Middle Dutch Church is where the enlisted men captured at the Battle of Long Island were imprisoned. The Sugar House also became a prison as the Redcoats captured more of Washington's soldiers during the retreat from New York. The site today is the location of the Chase Manhattan Bank. (Image from about 1830.)[5][6]
The British forces held relatively few places in strength for long periods. American prisoners of war tended to be accumulated at these sites. New York City was a major site of occupation, where sugar houses were used to detain prisoners of war.[7] Philadelphia in 1777 and later Charleston, South Carolina, were also important. Facilities at these places were limited. At times, the occupying army was actually larger than the total civilian population.

The British solution to this problem was to use obsolete, captured, or damaged ships as prisons.[8] Conditions were appalling, and many more Americans died of neglect while imprisoned than were killed in battle.[9] While the Continental Army named a commissary to supply them, the task was almost impossible. Elias Boudinot, as one of these commissaries, was competing with other agents seeking to gather supplies for George Washington's army at Valley Forge.

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 during about 1776–83. These 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.[10][11] Over 10,000 American prisoners of war died from neglect. Their corpses were often tossed overboard, though sometimes they were buried in shallow graves along the eroding shoreline.[12] Many of the remains became exposed or were washed up 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, and Congressman Robert Brown.

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