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| Joined: | Mon Nov 21st, 2005 |
| Location: | California USA |
| Posts: | 6399 |
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We have hitherto met you in the field of battle,
with hostile minds, urged on by the great principle of
self-defence
;
yet in those instances, where the fortune
of war hath delivered any of your countrymen into
our hands, we appeal to them that our enmity liath
ceased the moment they were disarmed ; and we have
treated them more like citizens than prisoners of war. We now address you as part of the great family of
mankind, whose freedom and happiness we most ear
nestly wish to promote and establish.
Compared to this:
http://www.thedearsurprise.com/the-wretched-prison-ships/
More Americans died in British prison ships in New York Harbor than in all the battles of the Revolutionary War.
There were various ways to get off the prison ships. The British had a standing offer that any prisoner could be released immediately if he joined the British forces, and an unidentified number did so. Prisoners who carried money with them could buy their way off the ship. Others managed to escape. Also, prisoner exchanges were quite common, with officers exchanged for officers, seamen for seamen, soldiers for soldiers. But for vast numbers of prisoners, there were only two possibilities: death or the end of the war, whichever came first.