NAVAL PRISONERS, PRIZES, AND THEIR EFFECTS ON
NA VAL PRISONERS, PRIZES, AND THEIR EFFECTS ON
Neutrality of France and Spain
This matter of naval prisoners in England, combined with the violations of neutral rights
comitted by our vessels, was a great source of worry to the American Com missioners. These officials, having merely the status of private citizens in France, were treated by the French court
with all civility, but they could not yet be openly.
received or recognized. Hence their work required the
utmost' tact and delicacy. That naval prisoners in Eng
land" were treated with extreme harshness is admitted even by British authorities. This cruelty was undoubtedly -
due partly to the low conditions of prison systems in England, as indeed in other parts of Europe in the
eighteenth century. One of the reasons for the cruises of American vessels in British waters was to capture Englishmen in retaliation for the treatment of Americans in Forton prison at Portsmouth, Mill prison at Plymouth, and the prison ship Jersey at Brooklyn.
"The British Government resisted the exchange of prisoners taken in European waters on three grounds: (1) This involved a recognition of belligerent rights in the insurgents. (2) The American prisoners could be kept out of harm's way in England; the same condition did not apply to British prisoners taken by American vessels, as long as France refused to permit such prisoners to be landed and imprisoned on her shores. (3) British
Mamen, being far more numerous than American, exchange would tell more favorably for the latter than for
To end their sufferings, some of these prisoners in
England enlisted in the British Navy, or in whaling fleets, while others escaped from prison. Conyngham and sixty
companions, in November, 1779, burrowed their way out of captivity, thus" committing treason through his Majesty's earth," as Conyngham remarked'. It was long
After the secret treaty between France and the United States was signed in February, 1778, before Franklin
could persuade the English to take a more liberal view'" regards exchanging prisoners. In fact, the first
exchange was not effected till March, 1779. The Americans, before the treaty with France, had to confine their captives
taken in British waters on shipboard, or let them go. After the treaty. and after the breaking.
out of war between Spain and England in 1779, these men were im
prisoned in France and Spain. So, likewise, the question of the disposition of prizes captured in European
waters was a difficu1t one before the treaty. Many prizes were taken to France, where they
were secretly sold, in spite of official orders commanding the American Captains to leave port with their prizes. Indeed, it is
very probable that, if hostilities between France and England had not for other causes broken out in 1778,
The countries would have gone to war because of the connivance of the French at these breaches of neutrality.