Historian David Barton, founder of WallBuilders, tells Jenny Beth Martin the story most American history classes skip. Of the roughly 200,000 who fought in the Revolution, about 25,000 died — but only some 7,000 fell to bullet wounds. Around 18,000 died as prisoners of the British, which means capture was close to three times deadlier than combat. Barton explains why: the British refused to recognize captured Americans as legitimate prisoners of war, treating them instead as rebels, insurrectionists, and traitors who deserved nothing. He describes the prison ship Jersey in New York Harbor and the notorious Prevost Jail, where he says roughly 80 percent of those confined never came out alive.
The contrast with how America conducted itself is stark. After the victory at Saratoga in 1777, Barton recounts, the Continental Army took 6,000 British prisoners, let them keep their weapons, and sent them home on the condition they stop fighting. Even George Washington's repeated appeals to British commanders to treat American captives humanely went unanswered. It is a sobering look at what "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" meant for the ordinary men who fought, and at how despised the American cause was by the empire it defied.
Get David Barton's book at wallbuilders.com. Watch more at jennybethshow.com, and learn about Tea Party Patriots Action at teapartypatriots.org.
00:00 — 200,000 Fought, 25,000 Lost
00:24 — Why Capture Was Three Times Deadlier
01:04 — Treated Lower Than Any Enemy
02:02 — How America Treated Its Prisoners
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