Washington Considered Selling Food to British Punishable by Death During Revolution

What was said

"Washington is very disappointed by this. Interestingly, Washington does not think that selling to the highest bidder is the American way. So Washington, at various points, talks about making trading with the British punishable by death. He sends 1,000 men out to basically requisition all the livestock from the local fields. So basically steal it. To steal it, exactly."

During Valley Forge, when local Welsh Quaker farmers sold food to British troops in Philadelphia rather than the Continental Army, Washington proposed making trading with the British a capital offense and sent 1,000 men to forcibly seize livestock from locals. This authoritarian response contradicts the Revolution's free market rhetoric and shows Washington's willingness to use extreme measures when desperate.