Book Review: Forgotten Patriots

During the American Revolutionary War, British forces held the vast majority of Americans they captured in improvised New York City "prisons" or on prison ships at anchor in New York Harbor. "As many as 35,000 Americans died in the Revolutionary War of all causes; roughly half of these deaths were in the prisons and prison ships of New York City," Edwin Burrows writes in this examination of appalling abuses of American prisoners of war by the British. Combing through existing records and the popular contemporary narratives of Jabez Fitch, Ethan Allen and others, he finds the causes of the staggeringly high death rate among American prisoners (between 50%-70%): starvation (the British were stingy with limited provisions), inadequate clothing during harsh New York winters and the rapid spread of disease in filthy accommodations.

The British ignored repeated entreaties from George Washington and others for humane treatment for the Americans they held. "Even referring to captured Americans as prisoners of war was out of the question, lest it appear to concede the reality of American independence and the legitimacy of Congress," writes Burrows of the Catch-22 preventing any agreement. British officers regarded the American army as rebels and troublemakers, not fellow soldiers. Mistreatment of American prisoners of war continued unabated. As Burrows emphasizes, the arrogance, cruelty and brutality of the British during the War made Americans even more determined to sever all ties with Britain.

At the end of the war, there remained the tasks of reclaiming the bodies of those who died in British captivity, recognizing their sacrifices for the revolutionary cause and honoring their memories. As readers will learn, that process too was fraught: memorials for the dead were either modest and obscure or very long in coming (Brooklyn's Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument was dedicated in 1908). It is another of many sad stories in this important and harrowing book. Burrows reminds us that young America between 1782 and 1787 strove to negotiate international agreements to "treat future prisoners of war with the decency and humanity never accorded them by the British--that what set it apart from the former mother country was only the commitment to basic human rights." Now, in 2008, with our actions at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay starkly revealed, we have fallen far short of our Founding Fathers' values and goals for our new nation.--John McFarland

Shelf Talker: Forgotten Patriots memorably reclaims those who sacrificed their lives in the American Revolution as captives of the British while it also focuses the spotlight on basic human rights for prisoners of war, in 1775 and now.