author
Charles Herbert
1757–1808
A young Massachusetts sailor turned his Revolutionary War imprisonment into one of the era’s most vivid firsthand narratives. His memoir preserves the daily hardships, fears, and resilience of American prisoners held in England during the war.
1 Audiobook
A Relic of the Revolution
by Charles Herbert
About the author
Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on November 17, 1757, Charles Herbert is remembered for A Relic of the Revolution, a memoir drawn from his experiences as a teenage sailor captured during the American Revolution. Archival records describe his journal as a detailed account of imprisonment from 1776 to 1780, including daily life and the hardships faced by prisoners held by the British.
Herbert’s writing stands out because it is immediate and personal. Rather than offering a distant summary of the war, he recorded hunger, sickness, confinement, and the emotional strain of captivity, giving later readers a close view of what ordinary people endured.
After the war, he returned to life in Newburyport, married Holly Butler in 1783, and worked as a block-maker until his death on September 4, 1808. Though not a famous literary figure in the usual sense, his surviving memoir remains an important eyewitness record of the Revolution.