American Prisoners of the RevolutionDandridge, Danske
History
American Prisoners of the Revolution
Dandridge, Danske
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Prisoners and prisons
Andros declares that there was no trace of religion exhibited on board
the Jersey. He also says that the prisoners made a set of rules for
themselves by which they regulated their conduct towards each other. No
one was allowed to tyrannize over the weak, and morality was enforced by
rules, and any infraction of these regulations was severely punished.
He speaks of scenes of dreadful suffering which he witnessed:
“Which things, most worthy of pity, I myself saw,
And of them was a part.”
“The prison ship is a blot which a thousand ages cannot eradicate from
the name of Britian. * * * While on board almost every thought was
occupied to invent some plan of escape. The time now came when I must
be delivered from the ship or die. I was seized with yellow fever, and
should certainly take the small-pox with it, and who does not know that
I could not survive the operation of both of these diseases at once. * *
* I assisted in nursing those who had the pox most violently.
“The arrival of a cartel and my being exchanged would but render my
death the more sure.”
Yet he endeavored to promote his exchange by stepping up and giving in
his name among the first, when a list of the prisoners was taken. Andros
was not strong, and as he himself says, disease often seemed to pass
over the weak and sickly, and to attack, with deadly result, the
prisoners who were the healthiest and most vigorous.
“It was the policy of the English to return for sound and healthy men
sent from our prisons, such Americans as had but just the breath of life
in them, sure to die before they reached home. The guard would tell a
man while in health, ‘You haven’t been here long enough, you are too
well to be exchanged.’
“There was one more method of getting from the ship,” Andros continues,
“and that was at night to steal down through a gun-port which we had
managed to open unbeknown to the guard, and swim ashore.” This, he
declared, was for him a forlorn hope. Already under the influence of
yellow fever, and barely able to walk, he was, even when well, unable
to swim ten rods. Discovery was almost certain, for the guards now kept
vigilant watch to prevent any one escaping in this manner, and they shot
all whom they detected in the act of escaping. Yet this poor young man
trusted in God. He writes: “God, who had something more for me to do,
undertook for me.” Mr. Emery, the sailing master, was going ashore for
water. Andros stepped up to him and asked: “Mr. Emery, may I go on shore
with you after water?”
No such favor had ever been granted a prisoner, and Andros scarcely knew
what prompted him to prefer such a request. To his immense surprise, the
sailing master, who must have had a heart after all, replied, “Yes, with
all my heart.” He was evidently struck with compassion for the poor,
apparently dying, young man.
Andros, to the astonishment of his companions, immediately descended
into the boat. Some of them asked: “What is that sick man going on shore
for?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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