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The article discusses U.S. nationalism in relation to the civil rights of American sailors and prisoners of war in British prisons during the War of 1812, and it mentions national identity and loyalty to the U.S. The treatment of captured Americans at the Dartmoor Depot prison in England is examined, along with the impact of disease, poor food, and overcrowding on American prisoners in Great Britain. Reuben Beasley, the American Agent for Prisoners of War in England, is assessed.

This article employs a transactional approach to examine the role of national stereotypes in the rise of American nationalism in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Despite deep sectional and partisan divisions within the US population, an American national identity was constructed in contrast to the British national character and perceived British ideals. This identity was constructed on an external categorization by the elite males of other nations, particularly England. Political satires and caricatures, particularly in the character of Brother Jonathan and John Bull, illustrate the oppositional nature of this nascent national identity during the early nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]