So you want to compare a pre-Geneva treatment of PoWs to what a regime does to his own citizens? Does that mean we should raise that rug under which were swept those numerous massacres of Loyalists during the Revolutionary War, a number that is considerably higher than those who died on the HMS Jersey? Or skip along down the historical road to Andersonville, which was several degrees worse than what was encountered on that prison ship?

Between 1607 and April 18, 1775, the list of "oppressive" measures the British imposed in the thirteen colonies pales significantly to what was enacted in India in the 18th and 19th centuries or what happened in Congo under Leopold or pretty much anywhere else being "colonized" during that time. Considering that those actions were imposed by civil officials rather than by military officials during war conditions, perhaps you might want to revisit your comments and provide evidence of British civil officials pre-war imposing anything more onerous than a few taxes that weren't any heavier than what the British subjects themselves had to pay in Great Britain at the time? The harshest I can recall was the shutting down of Boston Harbor and the revoking of Massachusetts colonial charter, both measures that didn't see tens of thousands of people assaulted in the streets or shot.