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American Prisoners of the Revolution

American Prisoners of the Revolution

Danske Dandridge
5.0
Literature
46 Chapters
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Trajectory presents classics of world literature with 21st century features! Our original-text editions include the following visual enhancements to foster a deeper understanding of the work: Word Clouds at the start of each chapter highlight important words. Word, sentence, paragraph counts, and reading time help readers and teachers determine chapter complexity. Co-occurrence graphs depict character-to-character interactions as well character to place interactions. Sentiment indexes identify positive and negative trends in mood within each chapter. Frequency graphs help display the impact this book has had on popular culture since its original date of publication. Use Trajectory analytics to deepen comprehension, to provide a focus for discussions and writing assignments, and to engage new readers with some of the greatest stories ever told."The Moving Picture Girls: Or, First Appearances in Photo Dramas" is part of "The Moving Picture Girls" series. "The Moving Picture Girls" is a series about the adventures of Ruth and Alice DeVere who live with their father who is an actor.

Chapter 1 — INTRODUCTORY

It is with no desire to excite animosity against a people whose blood is in our veins that we publish this volume of facts about some of the Americans, seamen and soldiers, who were so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of the enemy during the period of the Revolution. We have concealed nothing of the truth, but we have set nothing down in malice, or with undue recrimination.

It is for the sake of the martyrs of the prisons themselves that this work has been executed. It is because we, as a people, ought to know what was endured; what wretchedness, what relentless torture, even unto death, was nobly borne by the men who perished by thousands in British prisons and prison ships of the Revolution; it is because we are in danger of forgetting the sacrifice they made of their fresh young lives in the service of their country; because the story has never been adequately told, that we, however unfit we may feel ourselves for the task, have made an effort to give the people of America some account of the manner in which these young heroes, the flower of the land, in the prime of their vigorous manhood, met their terrible fate.

Too long have they lain in the ditches where they were thrown, a cart-full at a time, like dead dogs, by their heartless murderers, unknown, unwept, unhonored, and unremembered. Who can tell us their names? What monument has been raised to their memories?

It is true that a beautiful shaft has lately been erected to the martyrs of the Jersey prison ship, about whom we will have very much to say. But it is improbable that even the place of interment of the hundreds of prisoners who perished in the churches, sugar houses, and other places used as prisons in New York in the early years of the Revolution, can now be discovered. We know that they were, for the most part, dumped into ditches dug on the outskirts of the little city, the New York of 1776. These ditches were dug by American soldiers, as part of the entrenchments, during Washington's occupation of Manhattan in the spring of 1776. Little did these young men think that they were, in some cases, literally digging a grave for themselves.

More than a hundred and thirty years have passed since the victims of Cunningham's cruelty and rapacity were starved to death in churches consecrated to the praise and worship of a God of love. It is a tardy recognition that we are giving them, and one that is most imperfect, yet it is all that we can now do. The ditches where they were interred have long ago been filled up, built over, and intersected by streets. Who of the multitude that daily pass to and fro over the ground that should be sacred ever give a thought to the remains of the brave men beneath their feet, who perished that they might enjoy the blessings of liberty?

Republics are ungrateful; they have short memories; but it is due to the martyrs of the Revolution that some attempt should be made to tell to the generations that succeed them who they were, what they did, and why they suffered so terribly and died so grimly, without weakening, and without betraying the cause of that country which was dearer to them than their lives.

We have, for the most part, limited ourselves to the prisons and prison ships in the city and on the waters of New York. This is because such information as we have been able to obtain concerning the treatment of American prisoners by the British relates, almost entirely, to that locality.

It is a terrible story that we are about to narrate, and we warn the lover of pleasant books to lay down our volume at the first page. We shall see Cunningham, that burly, red-faced ruffian, the Provost Marshal, wreaking his vengeance upon the defenceless prisoners in his keeping, for the assault made upon him at the outbreak of the war, when he and a companion who had made themselves obnoxious to the republicans were mobbed and beaten in the streets of New York. He was rescued by some friends of law and order, and locked up in one of the jails which was soon to be the theatre of his revenge. We shall narrate the sufferings of the American prisoners taken at the time of the battle of Long Island, and after the surrender of Fort Washington, which events occurred, the first in August, the second in November of the year 1776.

What we have been able to glean from many sources, none of which contradict each other in any important point, about the prisons and prison ships in New York, with a few narratives written by those who were imprisoned in other places, shall fill this volume. Perhaps others, far better fitted for the task, will make the necessary researches, in order to lay before the American people a statement of what took place in the British prisons at Halifax, Charleston, Philadelphia, the waters off the coast of Florida, and other places, during the eight years of the war. It is a solemn and affecting duty that we owe to the dead, and it is in no light spirit that we, for our part, begin our portion of the task.

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Latest Release: Chapter 46 — SOME OF THE PRISONERS ON BOARD THE JERSEY   01-08 10:45
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1 Chapter 1 — INTRODUCTORY
06/12/2017
2 Chapter 2 — THE RIFLEMEN OF THE REVOLUTION
06/12/2017
3 Chapter 3 — NAMES OF SOME OF THE PRISONERS OF 1776
06/12/2017
4 Chapter 4 — THE PRISONS OF NEW YORK—JONATHAN GILLETT
06/12/2017
5 Chapter 5 — WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, THE PROVOST MARSHAL
06/12/2017
6 Chapter 6 — THE CASE OF JABEZ FITCH
06/12/2017
7 Chapter 7 — THE HOSPITAL DOCTOR—A TORY’S ACCOUNT OF NEW YORK IN 1777—ETHAN ALLEN’S
06/12/2017
8 Chapter 8 — THE ACCOUNT OF ALEXANDER GRAYDON
06/12/2017
9 Chapter 9 — A FOUL PAGE OF ENGLISH HISTORY
06/12/2017
10 Chapter 10 — A BOY IN PRISON
06/12/2017
11 Chapter 11 — THE NEWSPAPERS OF THE REVOLUTION
06/12/2017
12 Chapter 12 — THE TRUMBULL PAPERS AND OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION
06/12/2017
13 Chapter 13 — A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE PROVOST
06/12/2017
14 Chapter 14 — FURTHER TESTIMONY OF CRUELTIES ENDURED BY AMERICAN PRISONERS
06/12/2017
15 Chapter 15 — THE OLD SUGAR HOUSE—TRINTY CHURCHYARD
06/12/2017
16 Chapter 16 — THE CASE OF JOHN BLATCHFORD
06/12/2017
17 Chapter 17 — BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND OTHERS ON THE SUBJECT OF AMERICAN PRISONERS
06/12/2017
18 Chapter 18 — THE ADVENTURES OF ANDREW SHERBURNE
06/12/2017
19 Chapter 19 — MORE ABOUT THE ENGLISH PRISONS—MEMOIR OF ELI BICKFORD—CAPTAIN FANNING
06/12/2017
20 Chapter 20 — SOME SOUTHERN NAVAL PRISONERS
06/12/2017
21 Chapter 21 — EXTRACTS FROM NEWSPAPERS—SOME OF THE PRISON SHIPS—CASE OF CAPTAIN
06/12/2017
22 Chapter 22 — THE JOURNAL OF DR. ELIAS CORNELIUS—BRITISH PRISONS IN THE SOUTH
06/12/2017
23 Chapter 23 — A POET ON A PRISON SHIP
06/12/2017
24 Chapter 24 — “THERE WAS A SHIP”
06/12/2017
25 Chapter 25 — A DESCRIPTION OF THE JERSEY
06/12/2017
26 Chapter 26 — THE EXPERIENCE OF EBENEZER FOX. —
06/12/2017
27 Chapter 27 — THE EXPERIENCE OF EBENEZER FOX (CONTINUED)
06/12/2017
28 Chapter 28 — THE CASE OF CHRISTOPHER HAWKINS
06/12/2017
29 Chapter 29 — TESTIMONY OF PRISONERS ON BOARD THE JERSEY
06/12/2017
30 Chapter 30 — RECOLLECTIONS OF ANDREW SHERBURNE
06/12/2017
31 Chapter 31 — CAPTAIN ROSWELL PALMER
06/12/2017
32 Chapter 32 — THE NARRATIVE OF CAPTAIN ALEXANDER COFFIN
06/12/2017
33 Chapter 33 — A WONDERFUL DELIVERANCE
06/12/2017
34 Chapter 34 — THE NARRATIVE OF CAPTAIN DRING
06/12/2017
35 Chapter 35 — THE NARRATIVE OF CAPTAIN DRING (CONTINUED)
06/12/2017
36 Chapter 36 — THE INTERMENT OF THE DEAD
06/12/2017
37 Chapter 37 — DAME GRANT AND HER BOAT
06/12/2017
38 Chapter 38 — THE SUPPLIES FOR THE PRISONERS
06/12/2017
39 Chapter 39 — FOURTH OF JULY ON THE JERSEY
06/12/2017
40 Chapter 40 — AN ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE
06/12/2017
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