Napoleon's American Prisoners

Based on extensive original research, this book tells the story of the 1,500 or so common seamen of the American merchant marine who were held as prisoners of war in France during the Napoleonic Wars. Although the United States was neutral, Napoleon interpreted neutrality narrowly, and included among the enemy merchants doing business with the enemy and seamen working on enemy vessels. Drawing on remarkably full source material in French, American and British archives, including the seamen's letters, their pleas for help to the consuls, the correspondence about them between the French authorities and the US diplomatic service, and the British Admiralty lists of prisoners, the book reveals a great deal about who these seamen were, and about their vastly different experience in French prisons. It contrasts their fate with that of British seamen and officers, discusses the labyrinthine maritime laws that ensnared the seamen and how their nationality, in an era before passports, was determined, charts the establishment of the US consular service, first established at this time to help "distressed American seamen", and relates the American seamen's experiences to the wider scholarly literature. Throughout, the book includes fascinating case studies of the adventures and misadventures of individual seamen.