The Forgotten Victims of the Revolutionary War

This ground-breaking study by Prof. Jones (Purdue) examines the largely forgotten history of prisoners of war during the Revolutionary War, rooted in politics, ideology, and economics.

Initially, the American Patriots sought to adhere to the customary law of war of the age, which provided reasonable treatment for prisoners-of-war, with provision for parole and exchange. The British, however, considered their American captives not as legitimate prisoners-of-war, but rebels outside the protection of those customs. As a result, they imposed a harsh regime. Although it didn’t reach the mass slaughter inflicted on the Jacobites a generation earlier, captives were crowded into only ships lying in backwaters, where enormous numbers died from hunger or disease.

Revolutionary propagandists latched on this maltreatment to help rile up ardor for the war, which in turn led to demands for vengeance. American treatment of prisoners hardened, exacerbated by the fact they had little enough resources to feed and clothe the Continental Army, though eased to some extent by the willingness of the Patriots to accept defectors from their British, and particularly “Hessian” captives. Nevertheless, the result was enormous suffering and death among prisoners-of-war on both sides, which is largely forgotten today.

A volume in the UPenn series “Early American Studies”, Captives of Liberty is an important read for those interested in the Revolutionary War or the law of war.

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