The letters of marque themselves insisted that all prisoners were to be treated with decency and respect, and virtually all of the articles of agreement had strongly worded reminders of this clause. This amazed British Navy officers who fell prisoner to American privateers, and who, it would seem, often expected to be scalped. The French corsairs were a rough lot, and the British were hardly noted for their kindliness to captives, but American privateering skippers went out of their way to be gallant after a fight, behaving on the whole like regular Navy captains who were sure of their positions, their dignity, and felt no need to be gruff. But it helped the cause.Īnother thing that marked the Americans was their humanity. It wasn't required by law, and it took time. What's more, many times they destroyed vessels after sacking them, rather than risk a prize crew aboard of them when there was little chance that they might make an American port. They did this even before the government (as we shall see) offered to pay for the prisoners and offered also to pay for any war vessel that had been captured, sunk, or burned. And time after time, too, the Americans went out of their way to send back to the federal authorities captured dispatches or prisoners who might be of value to the war effort. Time after time they tackled war vessels of their own size or even larger, a policy any European privateer would have The United States was a much younger nation than Britain or France, and her privateers were ardent. If this did not flame as high in the War of 1812 as it had in the early part of the Revolution, it nevertheless was a living, ponderable thing, not to be sneered at. Mention has been made of the patriotism of American privateers.
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