Enemies: Treatment & Perception of the Defeated in the American Revolution—A Panel Discussion

MHS Event

This seminar will workshop a work in progress. 
The event is virtual and free of charge.

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This panel will explore how British defeats and prisoners of war were perceived during the Revolutionary period. Susan Brynne Long’s paper discusses how the partisan fighting in the southern backcountry during the Revolution maintains a legendary status in historical memory that has recently been reinvigorated by the publication of no less than three books in the last two years. The picture of American prisoner administration that emerges in much of the scholarship is one of vengeance-driven brutality. But the papers of South Carolina revolutionaries reveal that legislation passed between 1775-1776 related to prisoner management emphasized humanity. Early in the war, a regard for martial tradition and lived experiences with prisoners informed their administration by southern revolutionaries. Tanner Ogle’s paper shows that while historians have presented numerous reasons for the failure of British military policy in the early years of the American Revolution, they have often overlooked the formative role of generational memory on military policies. Drawing on critical years theory, this paper contends that memories of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 were central to both American and British military policies. Since the rules of war were different for rebellions than conventional warfare and because memories of the ’45 influenced public opinion and military leadership, American victories need to be understood in the context of Jacobite defeat.

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