Prisoners of War The condition of prisoners on the was ships was rough. More than 8,500 Americans died in captivity. Men were held most of the day in filthy holds that smelled of human waste. One ship name was " Whitty ". The captives were allowed to keep their clothes and bedding, but nothing else of theirs onto the ship. They were also given no medical attention.
Another ship was called the " Jersey ". The prisoners were affected by scurvy. The ship had approximately 400-1,200 prisoners aboard the ship. They never cleaned the ship. That led to many different sicknesses including scurvy. Around 11,000 prisoners died on the boat from the time period between 1780 & 1783. The officers on the ship were treated differently. They got traded from the ship and became free but on parole. |
DiseasesA major killer during the revolutionary war were diseases. A few main types were typhus, dysentery, yellow fever,and small pox.
The symptoms of typhus were severe headache, a high fever for a few days, muscle aches, and weakness. Yellow fever was also a really big killer. The symptoms of yellow fever were headache, flushing, vomiting, muscle/joint aches, and in the worst cases organ problems and even organ failure. The symptoms for dysentery are stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting. Finally the one that killed the most people of all, and the most famous disease, was small pox. The symptoms of small pox were high fever, fatigue, headache, backache, and rashes. There were no know treatments for any of these diseases back when the revolutionary war was going on, so you would either fight it off or you would die form it. |