<P> There were three ways for a prisoner of war to achieve freedom after being captured . Desertion, exchange, or parole . A majority of the time, a small militia - hired guard was tasked to supervise the imprisonment of captured British and German soldiers . The United States ability to efficiently watch over their prisoners was constantly tested . The Convention Army initially took their POW status gracefully, but this was because they were under the assumption that they would be sent home within a year . When it became clear that the Americans had no intention of allowing the British to return to Great Britain until the war ended, tensions between the soldiers and the guard escalated and desertions rose rapidly . Propaganda was used by Americans and by high - ranking captured British officials to dissuade troops from deserting, but it largely failed . Many of the prisoners who escaped captivity took American women with them and reared families . A large number of Hessians remained in the US after the war was over because they married American women . Between the time of the Battle of Yorktown (1781) and the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1783), many of the convention troops, by then mostly Germans, escaped and took up permanent residence in the United States . The American government did not have the means to prevent this . </P> <P> The two other official forms of reaching freedom, parole and exchange, was common among high - ranking officers . Parole specifically dealt with individual prisoners of war and so the process of being removed from imprisonment or house arrest, and instead placed on parole, was a very simple and speedy process . This was what most British and German prisoners of war sought after . The degree of liberty when on parole varied and the breaking of parole was common, as many used it just to make desertion easier . Some British and Hessian prisoners of war were paroled to American farmers . Their labor made up for shortages caused by the number of men serving in the Continental Army . Exchange, however, was a very complex and slow process because it involved negotiation and diplomacy between a new and inexperienced nation and a state that absolutely refused to recognize American independence . A major hindrance to exchange was the reluctance of the British to concede non-rebel status to her adversaries . The British's perception of the Americans being rebels prevented exchange . A degree of mutual acceptance between Congress and the States, of the principle of exchange and procedure in its implementing must have been attained by the end of March, 1777 . Exchange was handled primarily by Congress instead of state powers . While state and local government had considerable power over parole, the federal government had power of negotiating exchanges . </P> <P> The capture of thousands of British prisoners of war in the hands of the Americans had the effect of further dissuading British officials from hanging Colonial prisoners, despite the abandoned hopes of a settlement by this stage, as they feared reprisals on prisoners being held by the Americans . After the Convention Army was captured, the rate of prisoner exchanges increased dramatically as a result . </P> <P> During the first years of the revolution prisoners of war, the Continental Congress tried to give prisoners of war the same amount of provisions as the soldiers guarding them . However, after the capture of the Convention Army resources turned scarce and the federal government had to rely on state governments to provide for POWs . From 1777 - 1778, General Clinton was providing food and subsidence on the Convention Army, but he eventually decided to end his assistance . Clinton placed the full economic burden of providing for the prisoners on the American government . In order to compensate for the lack of resources Congress could give to the British and German prisoners they moved them from state to state . The marches were largely a result of diminishing provisions . </P>

Who was kept at bridewell during the revolutionary war