In Virginia and other southern states, wealthy planters and plantation owners were happy to have prisoners (in Albemarle County, for example), because they could count on an even greater abundance of free or cheap labor. - Wikipedia

Is that statement true? Pretty much, but it's leaving a lot out and somewhat misleading. Let's look deeper. The elite farmers of Albemarle County definitely weren't "happy" to have some 3000 enemy soldiers occupying an encampment on Gen Harvie's land just outside Charlottesville and there was no massive employment of the soldiers by the community, which the statement seems to imply. Additionally the further south you went, the less this became a thing (which the article does clarify shortly after making this statement). If anything, Pennsylvania was more fitting of the description above than Virginia or the Carolinas were.

For one they represented an increase of 15-20% of the whole county of Albemarle, greatly straining existing supplies. At the time Charlottesville had the courthouse, a few homes, and a tavern or two. There wasn't a large infrastructure capable of maintaining the men so most of the work done by the soldiers wasn't hired hand work but was instead done within their camp and for their own benefit. One Convention Prisoner wrote of how rural Virginia was very different, with locals believing themselves to be poor with anything under 5000 acres of land. Some plantations, he noted, held 15,000 acres. Of course only a fraction of these plantations was actually worked land, the majority being left in a natural state. And that worked land had "employees" being, of course, those poor souls held in bondage.

As for the common prisoner... They finished the half constructed barracks themselves, then added special buildings like a medical building, a coffee house, and even a makeshift theater. They grew much of their own food in small garden plots. They made a small village and made it as comfortable as possible. Adequate food was scarcely provided and what was provided was, by some accounts, not even fit for animal consumption. This (and other factors) lead to numerous escapes. Like 350 in a two week period. Jefferson even wrote Washington that as many as 400 may have escaped almost overnight. Where did they go? Everywhere. Over 100 reentered service by making it to NYC and joining their fellow countrymen occupying the city. Others joined resistance bands that were fairly common on the frontier of Virginia. About 70 miles south of the site of the Convention Prisoners' camp is the town of Lynchburg, VA, named for John Lynch who founded the town at his family owned ferry crossing of the river. His brother was Colonel Charles Lynch, and Charles' sham trials and extra judicial application of mob justice against backcountry Tories, or what we more often call Loyalists, is the source of the term "lynching." While hanging would later be associated with the term, beatings, lashings, deprivation of property, forced oaths of allegiance, and similar harsh treatments for his neighbors even just suspected of loyality to the crown or committing subversion of revolutionary efforts were the order of the day. There was even one resistance band with about two dozen suspected escaped prisoners, and these groups weren't unique to Virginia by any stretch.

Other soldiers just left camp, quit the army (through desertion, effectively), and started life over again as Virginians on the sideline. Later, when they were being moved out of the county, Jefferson offered amnesty for any Hessians who would become citizens of Albemarle County, establishing and even allowing enticements like tax breaks for them. When Tarleton occupied Charlottesville after the invasion of Virginia, he found no less than 20 such Hessians living within the Charlottesville community. Some had indeed picked up work in the community as general laborers, and the militia drafted to guard the camp even allowed work passes to be issued to them for the purpose. Unfortunately, when Tarleton paid us a little visit they made a nice toasty fire near his encampment - where Tarleton Square Apartments sit today only a block and a half from town square and the courthouse. Any guesses for what they used to fuel their fire? Indeed, massive amounts of county records from the courthouse, which would have included loads of information about conventioners integrating through marriage records and the like. So we lost that info in the flames of occupation. There is certainly reference in soldiers' letters to taking odd jobs in the community, and in Pennsylvania they even passed an act about disclosing such employment;

Public notice is hereby given that in Pursuance of a late Act of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, All and any Person or Persons having Prisoners of War employed by them or residing with them for the Purposes of Labour & otherwise, by any Order of the War office, or of such Officer as may be authorized by the Said Office for that Purpose, Such Persons so having or receiving Such Prisoners of War, Are Required to enter the Names of such Prisoners with the next Justice of the Peace within One Week of bringing them to their Places of respective Residence. The Inhabitants of York Town and its Vicinity are directed to make their Entries with Col. William Scott, Esquire.

That part of the claim is certainly true, though the conjured image of chain gangs and assigned work details at the expense of the soldiers just isnt very accurate.

Cont'd