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Review
A Pulitzer Prize - winning historian revisits the story of the brutal, degrading treatment of American prisoners of war during the Revolution.According to Burrows (History/Brooklyn Coll.; co-author, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, 1999, etc.), 20th-century historians have underestimated the extent and severity of British mistreatment of American prisoners, wrongly dismissing letters, affidavits, legal documents and other contemporaneous accounts as exaggerated propaganda. The author maintains that of the 35,800 American war-related deaths, roughly half died in New York City, either in the prisons, sugar houses and churches converted for the purpose, or prison ships. Victims of rotten food, foul water, overcrowding and a lack of proper clothing, blankets and firewood, a small number of the captives turned coat, sterling "proof" of their virtue. Moreover, as the war progressed, the unspeakable deaths of so many established a kind of moral Rubicon, making reconciliation with the mother country impossible. Americans accused Britain of purposely erecting a system designed "to murder [the prisoners] by inches, to treat them ten times more cruelly than if they had hung them all the day they took them." Although 18th-century rules of war were merely theoretical (even the informal code among officers and gentlemen broke down in this peculiar conflict), references to captured Americans as POWs appeared to concede the reality of American independence and legitimize Congress. With the legal status of the prisoners uncertain, British authorities allowed Gen. William Howe and his subordinates a free hand, with disastrous consequences for the prisoners and for British prestige. This horrific tale references such glittering personalities as Washington, Lafayette and Franklin, as well as Ethan Allen and Philip Freneau. Mostly, though, it's the story of thousands of nameless Americans who gave their lives for liberty.A moving tribute to the martyrs of the prison ships and a cautionary tale for a country, itself now wealthy and powerful, "at risk of becoming the kind of enemy they laid down their lives to defeat. (Kirkus Reviews)

Review
Washington Post Book World
“[A] pathbreaking examination of the treatment of American prisoners during the Revolutionary War… Burrows's book is a landmark whose significance far outweighs recent, popular biographies of the Founding Fathers. His sparkling prose, meticulous research and surprising findings recast our understanding of how the new nation was brought forth… Burrows masterfully explores a subject that had been left nearly untouched for more than two centuries.”

Seattle Times
“[Burrows] offers riveting accounts of what prison life was like in New York…It is as if, more than 200 years later, fitting tribute has finally been paid.”

Customer Reviews

Forgotten History
I have had the pleasure of taking Professor Burrows classes at Brooklyn College so I went into this reading expecting not only his great story-telling but a book of thorough research and high calibre and I was not disappointed.


As a historian (and veteran) I had some knowledge of the subject but once I read this book I realized how much more there was to learn.

The treatment that our prisoners received was nothing short of attrocious--there truly are no words to describe it--and I am suprised that we don't make the British continue to pay for the atrocities. That aside, today's youth would learn a very valuable lesson about how prisoners are treated in comparison to the current Iraq/Afghanistan situation. It may make many people realized that we treat prisoners of war as if they are living in high-class hotels with every amenity.

Congratulations to Professor Burrows. Another great book.

Excellent Work on an Overlooked and Forgotten Subject
This is a book displaying the best in American historical scholarship! Frankly I have been put off lately by political tomes revising American history to support some agenda -- usually Marxist -- and "proving" that the United States is not the shining light among nations that so many of us believe it is. Yes, our history is studded with evil acts and misguided policies, but eventually the will of a free and democratic people re-asserts itself time and time again in the face of specious propaganda, feckless politicians, and unbridled greed. But I digress.... (I read another book touted by Eric Foner this week.)

Author Burrows deserves the highest praise for this book. Most often the Revolutionary War is dismissed as one with relatively few casualties since the "official" killed in action number is only 4,435, a number that woefully understates the sacrifice in the war. Burrows gives 6,824 based on recent scholarship, but that number still misses the some forty percent of the wounded that later died from their wounds. The official number for wounded is 6,188, but since the wounded to killed ratio was likely around five to one, the wounded was more likely 20,000 of whom probably 8,000 died of their wounds and were permanently lost to the Continental Army and patriot cause.

The author estimates that up to 32,000 American prisoners were held around New York at some point during the war of which up to 18,000 died in captivity. But those released or exchanged were greatly enfeebled and often died within a few months after release. Combining these estimates with those deaths in captivity elsewhere by the British and adding the deaths from sickness while in service estimated at 10,000, and one arrives at deaths from all causes to be over 40,000. Out of a white male population over sixteen estimated at 551,000 of which somewhat more than a third were patriots (say 200,000), then approximately one in five patriots gave his life for his country. Wow, and double wow!

If those numbers seem high, then read Burrow's book. In any case, rebellion was truly a serious business. Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were improverished or worse as a result of their actions and the war, and the ordinary patriots also paid a very high price for independence. (I need not even think about the willingness of Americans today to make such sacrifices.) In my Great-great-great-grandfather's company that went with Arnold to Quebec in 1775, only 37% returned, and some of those were enfeebled for life (notably John Joseph Henry.)

Getting into the meat of the author's work, he focuses on the imprisonment of thousands of patriots in and around New York City, in the Sugar House on Manhattan, and in the prison hulks of the Royal Navy. He makes supurb use of contemporaneous sources and accounts, mostly highly credible and descriptive. These accounts have been submerged on purpose by politicians who sought a rapprochement with Great Britain and academic historians attempting to downplay the revolution and the sacrifice of patriots lest such knowledge enhance patriotism in a population they wish to move into a global community governed in a large part by foreigners and foreign interests.

Author Burrows makes use of many ancedotal accounts to illustrate the horrors of British captivity. The activities of David Sproat as commissary for naval prisoners comes in for particular condemnation, and although he favored treating prisoners especially brutally, most of the deaths under his watch were due to simple indifference to their plight. He did not even ease up on the prisoners after Yorktown.

The patriot efforts to bring relief to the captives were ineffective, too little and too late. In 1782, long after Yorktown, the British captured 57 men from the American privateer, "The Chance", and within weeks, "seventeen lay dead and three others were dying..." Of the twenty-five eventually released, one died immediately, and three others could not walk unaided. Even for the survivors, they faced a long and uncertain path to normalcy.

There is so much good in this book that I could write volumes just to make sure that everyone knows what seminal accounts are there. The author even refutes "Cunningham's Confession", proves the best rations the captives were alloted would reduce them to skeletons over time, and discusses events in the 20th century to downplay this story for political purposes. One is struck by the comparison between the Jersey or Good Hope and Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay. Our wartime prisons today are accommodations in the Ritz Carleton in comparison with those experienced in the Revolutionary War yet ignite storms of protests and anti-American feeling. Obviously, we have short memories. They are jolted extremely well by author Burrows, and New York City should be ashamed of itself for forgetting its history.

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