Thursday, July 25, 2013

Savage Barbarity

In a July 9, 1777 letter to his cousin John Adams, Samuel Adams wrote, "The Progress of the Enemy thro' the Jerseys has chagrind me beyond Measure, but I think we shall reap the Advantage in the End."

Like other Patriots, Samuel Adams believed that every British victory could mean their defeat.  In New Jersey, for instance, British forces committed such criminal outrageous that the people turned against the occupier and helped the Continental Army drive the British from the state.

Adams wrote of the people of New Jersey, "They have been treated with savage Barbarity by the Hessians, but, I believe, more so by Britains. After they have been most inhumanly used in their Persons, without Regard to Sex or Age, and plundered of all they had without the least Compensation, Lord Howe and his Brother (now Sir William Knight of the Bath) have condescended to offer them Protections for the free Enjoyment of their Effects."

For more on Lieutenant-General Sir William Howe and his brother Admiral Richard Lord Howe, please consult the post here.  For the July 9, 1777 letter of Samuel Adams to John Adams, please consult Paul H. Smith, editor, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789: Volume 7: May 1, 1777-September 18, 1777 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1981), page 64.  For Rev. John Witherspoon's prediction that Providence would make even "the inhumanity of brutal sodliers" work to some purpose, please check the post here.

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