Prisoners In The American Revolutionary War
During the American Revolutionary War (1775–83) the management and treatment of prisoners of war (POW) was very different from the standards of modern warfare. Modern standards, as outlined in the Geneva Conventions, expect captives to be held and cared for by their captors. One primary difference in the eighteenth century was that care and supplies for captives were expected to be provided by their own army, their government, or private resources.
However, it was not until seven years into the conflict and only one year before the Treaty of Paris (1783) officially ended the war, and primarily as a consequence of the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 resulting in the second British army of the war being captured, that American combatants were finally recognized as POWs by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1782.
Read more about Prisoners In The American Revolutionary War: Background, American Prisoners, British and German Prisoners
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