In the muddy waters of Long Island Sound off the coast of New Rochelle, NY, low tide reveals a group of menacing and jagged rocks. Known as Execution Rocks, condemned Revolutionary War prisoners and Colonials faced death in these unforgiving waters at the hands of British soldiers. Chained here at low tide, fated prisoners slowly drowned as the tide rose. Later, in 1846 a lighthouse was built in this location. Many claim the sight is haunted. This phenomenon was explored during the series "Ghost Adventures" hosted by the Travel Channel.
This is just one of the many brutal things done to Americans during the Revolutionary War. After having learned this, what are your true feelings about this treatment of American prisoners.
The treatment of American Prisoners by the British was very cruel and inhumane. This tactic was obviously used in order to strike fear into the colonists hearts. Drowning is a very cruel way to die because there is no way to fight it and it is agonizing to know the fate that awaits you.
ReplyDelete-Logan
I do believe punishment was harsh and brutal. Excruciating pain was the main goal of any official in charge of punishing criminals for the most minor crime. I am glad our system today is more humanized and civil than the punishment system during the Revolution.
ReplyDelete~Brianna
The American prisoners were treated incredibly terrible. One of the worst ways to die would be to drown, and that is what happened to the American prisoners of the Revolutionary War. This treatment is completely inhumane and should not have been allowed.
ReplyDeleteTaylor Pulliam
The story of drowning colonial soldiers at the hands of British troops was horrifying and sadistic. However, the British Prisoners of War would've faced similar treatment in the hands of enraged Colonists. The abuse of POWs was a gruesome event in the War for Independence, but unfortunately both the Crown and Colonists practiced it. Sympathy for POWs could be placed on both sides of the conflict.
ReplyDelete- Brett Buchanan
American prisoners were brutally mistreated by the British; there is no doubt about that. Their so-called mother country revealed its ugly face in war in the way that it treated its prisoners. Examples such as the slow drowning of colonials on Execution Rock clearly expressed Britain’s merciless feelings towards the disobedient colonists.
ReplyDelete-Jared Johnson
During the American Revolution, American prisoners of war were mistreated. However, the mistreatment of prisoners of war is just a given in almost every countries conflicts. Many POW's expected some form of torture at the hands of their enemies. The American soldiers were no different. They battled against the British army having a very vivid image of just what could happen to them, if they were captured.
ReplyDelete- Alex VIla
The treatment of American prisoners was very unfair. If they needed to be punished, they should've done it in a more liberal way, given that there were more humane ways to deliver punishments. The extent of punishment given by the British was extremely cruel, because the British made the prisoners die a slow and agonizing death.
ReplyDelete-Raegan Harris
American prisoners were treated as less than human. They did not even receive a quick, painless death; they had to suffer slowly. Most of the British regarded the Colonists as no less than dogs, which was one reason why the Colonists wanted revolution. They wanted to be seen as equals to the British, but the British continued to mistreat them. As prisoners of war, the colonists were brutalized by the British.
ReplyDelete--Allison Hudson
One of the most unfortunate facts about all the wars of the past was that in almost every conflict, prisoners suffered grotesque treatment. The fact that American men suffered such horrendous treatment as a result of fighting for their morals against tyranny during the American Revolution has served as one of the reasons that Americans have been so proud and appreciative of these men throughout America's history.
ReplyDelete-Jesse Wells
Treating American prisoners in this manner was inhumane and torturous. This form of murder was slow and agonizing. However; it was understandable. British soldiers were doing what they were told, which was to fight and defend the mother country. Therefore, British soldiers did not take in to consideration that these colonial soldiers had families; thus, the British soldiers did not see the brutality of this form of murder.
ReplyDelete-BRIA ROBINSON
American prisoners were treated brutally and ruthlessly. Colonial soldiers were fighting for their freedom. Many of the captured colonial soldiers were tortured and suffered a slow death. A simple execution was bad enough, but the British soldiers preferred to give the colonial soldiers a slow and horrible death.
ReplyDeleteBrandon Ruble
This treatment of American prisoners was completely unnecessary. Being tortured to death was a harsh and brutal punishment. Since the British soldiers wanted to kill Revolutionary War prisoners and Colonials, the British should have simply killed them. No man deserved to suffer, especially when fighting for his country.
ReplyDelete-McKayla Vaughn
Some American prisoners were treated in an extremely poor fashion. Although the punishments should have been chosen based on the severity of the offense, prisoners shouldn't have been punished that harshly. That was unnecessarily cruel. Prisoners should have been able to keep their dignity, instead of being treated as if they weren't human.
ReplyDelete-Samantha Wilson
The treatment of the Colonial prisoners of war during the American Revolution was extremely cruel and overwhelmingly harsh. However, the punishments delivered to the Colonial prisoners of war seemed logical to the British. The British believed that this treatment was necessary to frighten the American soldiers and to punish those who had fought for mutiny against Britain. Although these punishments were harsh, they were a necessity against what the British believed were "criminals."
ReplyDeleteBlake Robbins
The American prisoners were treated unfairly and unjustly by the British soldiers. The methods of punishment the British carried out were cruel, and led to prisoners suffering a slow painful death. If the British felt that punishment was necessary, there were more civil and humane ways to issue it.
ReplyDelete-Hannah Brown
During the Revolutionary War, Americans captured by the British awaited a harsh fate. The British soldiers used harsh punishments, such as drowning, to instill fear and submission into the hearts of the colonists. The British used these tactics to show the colonist that they were the superior army and should be feared as such. The American prisoners were treated harshly and inhumanly, and the British felt no remorse for the acts.
ReplyDelete-Andrew Reed
The treatment of p.o.w.s has always been terrible, and this information proves it. It has been known they were treated badly, sometimes starved or beaten, but men from the Revolutionary War were also drowned slowly while chained to a cliff. This act took place at a cliff with jagged rocks just beneath the surface of the water, this way some prisoners could easily be thrown off the cliff to be killed by the jutting edges. This reinforces the sympathy felt for prisoners during the trying time in history called The Revolutionary War.
ReplyDelete-Charlie Goggans
The British soldiers were indeed savages because they chained and drowned American prisoners of war. This horrible act was disturbing because each American prisoner was forced to suffer a slow, excruciating, and demeaning death. The British soldiers, who thought little of the Americans, proved themselves to be far more wretched than the Americans.
ReplyDelete-Mikenzi Brasfield
Tying prisoners down and making them drown was a cruel and unusual way to punish the prisoner. Although the prisoners were captives to the British, the British soldiers should have treated the prisoners with more respect. If British soldiers had such an urge to kill their prisoners, they should have killed the prisoners in a quicker manner-rather than drowning them.
ReplyDelete~Casey Wright
This was unnecessary and the British used this as well as other tactics to try to scare the colonists into surrendering. American prisoners were treated terribly wrong because they were rebelling. This is just one example of how they were treated because of it. Americans should have been treated a little more humanely and been given a quick death.
ReplyDeleteWill Cook
The American prisoners were treated horrible during the Revolutionary War. British soldiers were unhappy by the fact that colonists would not obey Great Britain. The prisoners should not have suffered for fighting for their country. The colonists death should have been quick; however, the British soldiers were inhumane and made them suffer and die a slow terrible death.
ReplyDeleteJeb Cowen
The atrocious treatment sentenced to prisoners of the Revolutionary War was astounding. Captured Americans waited on their demise, chained to a rock amidst the shifting seas. The unparalleled horror instilled by the British treatment of American soldiers remains imprinted in revolutionary history
ReplyDeleteAmericans were subject to cruel punishment if taken by British soldiers. It was torture for the American soldiers to be chained as the watched the tide slowly rise, knowing that death was inevitable. Americans were clearly treated cruelly and unfairly if captured during the Revolutionary War
ReplyDeleteShayan Kassim
The harsh treatment that American prisoners, during the American Revoulution, faced was highly uncalled for. The abuse of prisoners of war were the actions of arrogant and evil men. This sadestic treatment occured frequently throughout the Revolutionary War to prisoners of war on both the British and American sides. This would be the basis of cruel punishment that other prisoners of war would face.
ReplyDeleteThe Colonial people were horriblely treated, but the people went to war knowing the dangers. The Colonials went to war expecting loss of property,limbs,and even ones life.
ReplyDelete~Carlton Dorrough
This was a cruel and unusual form of punishment. Dragging out the length in which it took a prisoner to die, was malicious. Also, the build up of anticipation in the torture was unnecessary. Despite the prisoners guilt in wrong doing, the men should have been treated with respect. Instead, they were stripped of their dignity and treated like animals.
ReplyDelete- Audrey Beth Stafford
The mistreatment of American prisoners was cruel and undignified. The Americans wanted equality with the British and to stand as an equal nation beside them. However, the harsh punishments by the British made the colonists seem miniscule and unimportant compared to the British. This mistreatment was unnecessary, inhuman, and wrong.
ReplyDelete~Kelli Rae Brown
The punishments inflicted on the American prisoners were heinous. The action of chaining fellow humans to sharp rocks and waiting for them to slowly die is immoral and despicable. The punishment should have been something more humane and honorable.
ReplyDelete-Sarah Parker
Many American prisoners were badly mistreated. Tortures such as having to welcome death in places such as Execution Rocks were inhumane and took diginity away from a person. To show no mercy for Revolutionary soldiers and to instill fear in the minds of New Yorkers and colonists who were thinking about joining militias or helping the American cause, the British implemented these types of harsh punishments. Death by drowning is a horrible kind of death, specially dying chained and not being able to do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteDuring the Revolutionary war British soldiers forced Americans into inhumane and cruel deaths. The British tried to think of the worst death possible to give the American soldiers,and, in this act, they lost the little respect they had from other countries around to world. The British in one instance sent a group of soldiers to the arctic and literally froze them to death. These retched acts instilled anger in the Americans, therefore these forms of tourtre could have lost the British the war.
ReplyDelete~Matt Kennedy
During the American Revolution, many war time atrocities were committed against the colonial soldiers. The inhumane treatment bestowed on American prisoners of war was highly uncalled for and malicious on the part of the British Army. The British ignored the rules of war, which called for gentleman like behavior in any form of combat, and eagerly tortured their opponents in an unfair and cruel manner.
ReplyDelete~Liz Adair
This treatment to punish prisoners was ridiculous and down right disturbing. The british tortured prisoners and made them die a slow death, which was harsh and cruel. The British needed to come up with a more humane and less cruel way of punishment.
ReplyDelete-Aleigha Archie
Some American prisoners were treated inhumanely. They faced their fate by drowning slowly underneath the cold waters. Punishments like this were important to the British to control the revolt. However, these punishments were too cruel to be allowed.
ReplyDelete-Kason Aaron
In New Rochelle, New York, Revolutionary War prisoners were unfairly treated at the hands of the British. There was no reason that these prisoners should have been treated so harshly, and unless the person being executed was a murderer, he or she did not rightfully deserve this punishment. British soldiers were a brutal group of men out for the inhumane destruction of their colonial foes, and would stoop to any form of torture, including drowning, to see their vision come true.
ReplyDelete-Tori Vines
The treatment of colonial prisoners by British troops was horrendous, but it was also a part of war. The drowning’s were meant to induce a fear in the colonists to deter them from further rebellion.
ReplyDeleteAustin Banks