Sugar house prisons in New York City

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the former penitentiary in Salt Lake City, see Sugar House Prison (Utah).
The Livingston sugar house (left) on Liberty Street in Manhattan once detained 400 to 500 American prisoners of the Revolutionary War.

British prison ships over the course of the war, more than double the number of killed from battle.[2]

Background

During the 18th century, a large part of commerce in

Van Cortlands.[3][4] Three of these large structures were known for being used by the British Army to house prisoners of war during their occupation of New York City in the midst of the American Revolution.[1][4]

Prisons

Livingston's sugar house

Sugar house prisons in New York City is located in New York City
Van Cortlandt
Van Cortlandt
Livingston
Livingston
Rhinelander
Rhinelander
Van Cortlandt Park (Sugar house window)
Van Cortlandt Park (Sugar house window)
class=notpageimage|
Sugar house locations in New York City.

The sugar house on Crown (now Liberty) Street in Manhattan was a six-story stone building which had been built in 1754 by the Livingston family as a refinery with very low floors.[3][5] According to Revolutionary War veteran Levi Hanford, who was captured in March 1777, the cramped conditions initially housed about 40 to 50 prisoners. The population soon swelled to between 400 and 500, though attrition was constant due to those succumbing to illness. Rations consisted of pork and sea biscuits, which were often moldy from sea water and infested with worms. Nevertheless, the starving prisoners seldom refused the food, which was made consumable by placing it in a kettle of water and skimming off the parasites. Supplies for sick prisoners were provided by the fledgling American government, as Hanford stated that "the British furnished nothing."[5] Deceased prisoners were sewn up into their blankets and placed in a corner of the yard for pickup by a dead cart in the morning; as many as fifteen bodies once accumulated in the period of one day. Prisoner exchanges were organized with the prisoners held longest having priority.[5] The structure was later demolished in 1846.[4]

In the northeast corner of

state church headed by the British monarch they rebelled against.[7] Historian Edwin G. Burrows explains how the controversy related to a proposal to build a public street through the churchyard.[8]
: 228–30 

Rhinelander's sugar house

Rhinelander's sugar house & residence, between William & Rose Streets. The last of the sugar house prisons of the Revolution

The sugar house on the corner of Rose (now William) Street and Duane Street in Lower Manhattan was a five-story brick warehouse. Built in 1763 by William Rhinelander, the structure originally stored molasses and sugar next to his own residence.[9] During the Revolutionary War it is believed to have been used by the British army as a prison.[10] In 1852 Benson J. Lossing wrote:

Van Cortlandt's sugar house, which stood at the northwest corner of Trinity Churchyard, corner of Thames and Lumber [now Trinity Place] Streets; Rhinelander's, on the corner of William and Duane Streets, now (1852) Lightbody's Printing-ink Manufactory; and the more emininently historical one on Liberty Street (numbers 34 and 36), a few feet eastward of the Middle Dutch Church, now the Post-office, were the most spacious buildings in the city and answered the purposes of prisons very well. Rhinelander's is the only one remaining, the one on Liberty Street having been demolished in June, 1840, and Van Cortlandt's during the summer of 1852.[11]

But

Bronx.[9]

Van Cortlandt's sugar house

Van Cortlandt's sugar house

The sugar house on the northwest corner of the yard of Trinity Church in Manhattan was built by John Van Cortlandt and partner George Petterson around 1755; Van Cortlandt took sole proprietorship after their partnership was dissolved two years later.[12] Used as a prison during the Revolutionary War, the building was torn down in 1852.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Dandridge, Danske (1911). "The Prisons of New York—Jonathan Gillett". American Prisoners of the Revolution. Charlottesville, VA: The Michie Company, Printers. p. 25f.
  2. ^ Reese, Jimmie (September 17, 2009). "The Sugar House As A Prison During The Revolutionary War". Knickerbocker Village. Retrieved February 12, 2011.
  3. ^ a b Wilson, James Grant (1892). "The Memorial History of the City of New-York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892". Vol. 2. New York History Company. p. 454. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d Wilson, James Grant (1893). "The Memorial History of the City of New-York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892". Vol. 3. New York History Company. p. 301. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
  5. ^ a b c Hanford, William H. (January 15, 1852). "Incidents of the Revolution: Recollections of the Old Sugar House Prison" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
  6. ^ Chi, Sheena (December 15, 2008). "Trinity Church—Soldiers' Monument—Memorial for Unknown Revolutionary War Heroes". Archived from the original on December 16, 2019. Retrieved December 16, 2019. This inscription is on the south side. An inscription on the north side is more general: "Sacred to the memory of those brave and good Men who died whilst imprisoned in this City for their devotion to the cause of American independence." (Burrows, cited elsewhere, p. 230 (caption); photos at "Revolutionary War Soldiers Monument". Find A Grave. Retrieved January 12, 2020.)
  7. ^ Bushnell, Charles I. (1863). A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Levi Hanford, a Soldier of the Revolution. New York: [privately printed]. pp. 66–70 (note 27). This note was also published separately as a pamphlet with its own title: Bushnell, Charles Ira (1863). The Claim of Trinity Church to Having Furnished Burial Places For Some of the American Prisoners, Who Died in the Old Sugar House Prison, in Liberty Street, During the Revolution, Examined and Refuted. New York: [privately published].
  8. ^
    OCLC 191926052
    .
  9. ^ a b Lidian (March 19, 2010). "The Rhinelander Sugar House". The Virtual Dime Museum: Adventures in Old New York. Archived from the original on July 5, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  10. ISBN 978-0-486-31743-4
    .
  11. ^ Lossing, Benson J. (1852). The Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution. Vol. II. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 865.
  12. ^ De Forest, Louis Effingham (1930). "The New Jersey Branch". The Van Cortlandt family. The Historical Pub. Society. Retrieved February 11, 2011.

Further reading

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sugar_house_prisons_in_New_York_City&oldid=1222218515"