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This Day in Esoteric Political History

The Forgotten Massacre at Dartmoor Prison (1815) w/ Nick Guyatt

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6982 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s April 7th. This day in 1815, a chaotic attack at Dartmoor prison in England killled and injured dozens of American prisoners.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by historian Nicholas Guyatt to discuss why American prisoners of war were in Dartmoor even after the end of the War of 1812 — and how both the US and UK governments papered over the tragedy.

Nick’s new book, out now, is called “The Hated Cage.” Follow him on twitter for information about his US speaking dates.

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And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, coming soon from Radiotopia.

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro and Audrey Mardavich, Executive Producers at Radiotopia

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

0:07.0

My name is Jody Avergan.

0:10.0

This day, April 6, 1815, six Americans are killed dozens wounded in a chaotic attack on prisoners

0:17.1

being held at the Grim Darkmore Prison in Southwest England.

0:21.6

These were American prisoners, prisoners of the War of 1812 and

0:24.8

here we are after the war has died down British troops opening fire on Americans

0:30.3

held captive in a British prison.

0:33.7

The Dartmouth massacre is an event that's largely been forgotten in part because it was

0:37.5

overshadowed by other events around the War of 1812, but also in part because, as we'll discuss, the incident was papered over by both

0:44.2

British and American governments but it's a really fascinating story it gets at

0:47.9

lots of questions of war and citizenship but also to my mind what it means to be protected or abandoned by one's government.

0:55.4

So here to discuss the Dartmouth Massacre is Nick Geiad, professor of North American history at the

1:00.6

University of Cambridge and the author of a new book about

1:03.5

Dartmouth prison and the Dartmouth massacre it's called The Hated Cage it is coming out now

1:07.9

Nick thank you for doing this Jerry thanks for having me on and of course, as always, Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wesley.

1:15.8

Hello, there.

1:16.8

Hello, Jody.

1:17.8

Hey there.

1:19.1

So Nick, before we get to the incident itself, who's at Dartmouthmore?

1:23.5

How big is it?

1:24.2

What types of prisoners are there?

1:25.6

Just describe the facility.

...

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