Monday, December 19, 2011

Dec. 21: Prisoners in NC

On December 21, 1776, the Continental Congress "Resolved, That Mr. [William] Hooper be empowered to examine into the state of the North-Carolina Prisoners, and have such of them as are sick, removed to a private house, and kept under guard; and that he provide a Physician to attend them."

Representing North Carolina in Congress, Hooper was among the many delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776. In a December 12, 1777 message, the American Commissioners to France (Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee) informed Lord North, "The records of Congress, my lord, are filled with proofs of tender care and attention not only to the wants, but to the comforts and accommodation, of their prisoners." (Please consult Richard Henry Lee, Life of Arthur Lee... 2 vols. (Boston: Wells and Lilly, 1829), 1:102

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