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The Freeman's Journal, Or, New Hampshire Gazette
Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire
What is this article about?
A letter from a distinguished prisoner in New-York dated December 26, 1776, describes severe mistreatment of American prisoners by the British, with 20-30 dying daily from cold and hunger, bodies left unburied, and calls for retaliation against such barbarity.
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'The distress of the prisoners cannot be communicated by words, 20 or 30 die every day, they lie in heaps unburied, what numbers of my countrymen have died by cold & hunger, perished for want of the common necessaries of life, I have seen it. This is, the boasted British clemency. (I myself had well nigh perished under it) The New-England people can have no idea of such barbarous policy, nothing can stop such treatment but retaliation. I ever despised private revenge; but that of the public must be in this case just and necessary, it is due to the names of our murdered countrymen, and that alone can protect the survivors, in the like situation rather than experience again their barbarity and insults, may I fall by the word of the Hessian."
I am, &c.
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Where did it happen?
Domestic News Details
Primary Location
New York
Event Date
26th Dec. 1776
Key Persons
Outcome
20 or 30 die every day, they lie in heaps unburied, what numbers of my countrymen have died by cold & hunger, perished for want of the common necessaries of life
Event Details
The distress of the prisoners cannot be communicated by words... This is, the boasted British clemency. (I myself had well nigh perished under it) The New-England people can have no idea of such barbarous policy, nothing can stop such treatment but retaliation. I ever despised private revenge; but that of the public must be in this case just and necessary, it is due to the names of our murdered countrymen, and that alone can protect the survivors, in the like situation rather than experience again their barbarity and insults, may I fall by the word of the Hessian.