It has reached the level of perfection that only a black-hearted dictator could appreciate and envy. A distinctly inhumane condition that has been tweaked, tailored, and coldly mastered. The 20th-century alone can proudly bow its head in shame, achieving the pinnacle of this dangerous game...from Britain to Germany, to Cambodia, Rwanda, China, and the United States. The peak of performance has been reached in efficiently eliminating man by design. Genocide. But where did it begin to coalesce...become a final solution? Indians on the American frontier? Queen Victoria's camps for Boer families? Kaiser Wilhelm's camps for natives in Southwest Africa? Moa's China? Where did it germinate...where was the seed planted to culminate into humanity's masterpiece of wickedness? Was it Nazi Germany's state sponsored system of extermination? Or were there indications years, decades or centuries before? Was there an earlier indication, something laying the groundwork for politically motivated, deliberate mass murder? Perhaps the 18th-century can provide a partial answer...
Killing off your fellow man is nothing new...from time immemorial we see massacres, whole armies, cities, and populations butchered and eliminated for whatever self-serving reason that the time allows. Most are rash actions, spurred on by the moment with very little planning or inherit design. Some occurrences hint at a higher level of involvement...higher powers encouraging or giving specific orders to commit the act. Most past occurrences of this sort cannot be proven one way or the other, and do not reach a level of National policy directing extermination for no other reason than economic gain, color of skin or differing religious practices or beliefs. For example, in British Colonial America there were scattered attempts to eliminate Indians for their land. It wasn't Magisterial Policy, the King did not purposely set out to entirely eliminate Native Americans, but the old accusation of smallpox infused blankets were handed out to at least one unsuspecting tribe as a poisoned "peace offering". The desire continued into the 19th-century, innumerable Indian wars and massacres, one side trying to one-up the other. Indians killed the White man...White man killed the Indian...almost non-stop until the dawn of the 20th-century. Others were also targeted. The French population known as Acadians, forcibly removed almost entirely from Eastern Canada to other destinations, most famously Louisiana, at the conclusion of the French and Indian War is a good example of covert genocide...you tacitly eliminate a people by moving them into hostile environments, hoping they die off...out of sight out of mind.
1775...British America
Rebels against the Crown were not seen as human beings, rated lower than animals and when taken as prisoners of war, and were treated as such. To the British they were traitors, the lowest form of life imaginable. Captured American patriots were subjected to a regimen of prison life almost guaranteeing they would die a horrid and painful death, racked by hunger and disease. The main catalyst of this policy, which was approved at the highest levels of British leadership in America, was the sugar house, converted church or warehouse and the prison ship or hulk. Prisons located within the cities themselves (these converted churches, sugar houses, and warehouses) were stuffed to overflowing with Americans taken by the British (be it in battle, a colonist disagreeing with Crown policy, or simply being suspected of pro-liberty sentiment) and the conditions were dismal due to the overcrowding, abuse, and general neglect on the part of the British...so much so that new and preferably economical ways to house the continual flow need to be found. What materialized were the so called "prison ships". New York, Charleston in the Colony of South Carolina, Savannah in Georgia, Halifax in Nova Scotia, Philadelphia, St. Augustine in Florida, as well as Boston in the north played host to these numerous prison "hulks", New York's having the distinction of being the most well-documented, well-known, and infamous. Ships that outlived their usefulness, were brought in close to shore, anchored, secured, stripped of anything useful, then transformed with some minor construction into a holding pen...or prison. The concept was not new, was proven to be very economical, and functioned quite nicely as secure location to house prisoners of any stripe....escaping from a prison hulk offshore, surrounded by water, was a more daunting task than simply slipping away from a land-based prison. A wide variety of condemned vessels were deemed suitable for such a task, from worn-out warships to leaky old merchant vessels, past their prime...
Wallabout Bay sits across the East River from New York City. Today the area is Brooklyn Navy Yard, but during the Revolutionary War it was a remote destination surrounded by farms, marshes, and mud-flats. At least twenty-two British prison ships were stationed in this area between 1776 and 1783. New York City and the surrounding areas remained under British control well after most hostilities had ceased, only being evacuated after the peace treaty of 1783 ended the conflict. Three of these vessels were designated hospital ships. One would surmise these particular vessels serviced the floating prison ship complex in that capacity, in reality they were just as squalid and nightmarish as the rest of the "fleet". Conditions on the vessels were deplorable, hot, and humid, with little breath of fresh air below decks. American prisoners frequently died of disease, hunger, thirst...physical abuse. Once deceased, the bodies were taken ashore by the bushel and thrown into communal burial pits...one last final insult. Loss of life totaled in the thousands, and it was deliberately planned that way...
William Cunningham was born in Ireland and emigrated to America shortly before the Revolution. Before arriving, he was engaged in the unsavory scheme of tricking rural Irish men and women with promises of a new life in America, if only signed for passage to the American colonies. They were deceived, signing an indenture of servitude in exchange for passage, binding them in virtual slavery once they arrived, roughly seven years worth to repay the cost of transport. Through deceit, Cunningham was profiting in what amounted to a White slave trade. This was not unusual for the time, many engaged in this practice, but it was considered dubious and he was seen as lowbrow by his societal betters. Fortunately, the courts in New York caught on, freed the unfortunates of Cunningham's last "deal", and enraged him against the American colonial establishment. It led to him "join up" with like minded individuals in New York City, and actively seek out those supportive of Independence, a convenient excuse to administer gang justice at the end of a wooden club, venting his wrath on those colonials he perceived as ripping away his livelihood and besmirching the Crown. Patriot groups didn't stand by and let these royalist rabble rousers intimidate those seeking liberty, so they roughed him up in return, giving William even more of an excuse to hate those traitors to the Crown, an excuse to justify his future actions...
New York City fell to the British in 1776 and remained the beating heart of British control in the Americas to the bitter end. Release would not come until 1783, and even then the British thumbed their nose at the new United States by leaving their flying over the city. The British General to take up residence in this outpost of British civilization was Major General William Howe. He was not the first, nor the last British Commander in Chief to oversee the American War, but he is important to the story. General Howe was an experienced professional, both on the field of battle, and in the halls of government, finding much success in the French and Indian War and serving as the governor of the Isle of Wight. His military credentials include both the successful capture of French held Quebec and Spanish held Havana. Upon arriving in America, he was embroiled in the Revolution from its first actions, leading the British against the Americans at the Battle of Bunker/Breed's Hill in June of 1775, a tactical success, but a costly one, militarily. His predecessor, General Thomas Gage bore the brunt of Britain's early failures and was replaced by Howe in September. Howe would eventually be replaced as well, shouldering the loss of the Saratoga Campaign of 1777, but celebrated for capturing New York City and Philadelphia. In 1776, once the American army and General Washington were driven out, Howe set up his headquarters in the "Big Apple" and the stage was set.