American Prisoners of the Revolution

The work assembles and abridges eyewitness narratives, journals, official correspondence, and newspaper extracts to document the experiences of American soldiers and seamen held in British prisons and prison ships during the Revolution. It details conditions in New York prisons and aboard notorious prison ships, records individual testimonies of hardship, attempted escapes, exchanges, and burial practices, and reproduces lists of prisoners and appendices. Throughout the compilation, the compiler aims to preserve scattered sources, present varied firsthand testimony about deprivation and cruelty, and provide a memorial record for the men who perished or suffered in captivity.