Description:

Revolutionary War

List of Debts of American Captors to British Prisoners for Services in Charlottesville, Virginia

 

WINSLOW & HAWKINS, Manuscript Statement of Debts, November 14, 1780.  2 pp., 8.5" x 13.5"  Expected folds; one tear on fold.

 

A List of balances due the Convention Troops from Winslow & Hawkins A. C. P. at Albermarle Barracks, November 14, 1780.

 

This list provides a detailed accounting of £8,980, 12 shillings in Virginia currency due to thirty-four members of the Convention Army by Winslow & Hawkins, Assistant Commissary of Purchases. It includes the names of the individuals, including thirteen women.  The first page appears to list the purchase of soap at 48 shillings per unit, while later entries list other services such as slaughtering beeves, driving beeves, loading wagons, and making a chimney.

 

Historical Background

In October 1777, British General John Burgoyne surrendered his army of approximately 5,900 British, German, and Canadian troops after the Battle of Saratoga. The terms of the surrender specified that the troops would be sent back to Europe after giving parole that they would not fight again in the war. American guards marched the prisoners to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they arrived in November and spent about a year there pending negotiations. Many worked on local farms, and some 1,300 escaped. When Burgoyne refused the Continental Congress’s stipulation that he provided a list and description of all officers to ensure that they did not violate their parole, Congress revoked the surrender terms and determined to hold the prisoners until King George III ratified the convention.

 

In November 1778, the prisoners, now dubbed the Convention Army, marched south to Charlottesville, Virginia, where they arrived in January 1779. Approximately 400 more men escaped during the march. They were held at the poorly constructed Albemarle Barracks until 1781. Approximately 2,000 British, more than 1,900 German, and roughly 300 women and children occupied about three hundred closely spaced log huts in the barracks. During the two years the Convention Army spent in Virginia, it had an important economic impact on the area. Money sent by the prisoners’ families in Britain and Germany provided hard currency for the Blue Ridge area, and their presence created new demands for food and other goods.

 

British military operations in Virginia in the fall of 1780 raised concerns about the possibility of prisoner liberation. Therefore, on November 20, 1780, the British prisoners from Albemarle Barracks were marched to Fort Frederick, Maryland, and on February 20, 1781, the German prisoners were marched to Winchester, Virginia.

 

 

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