Friday May 06, 2022

Nicholas Guyatt: The Dartmoor Massacre (1815)

In the spring of 1815, as all Europe fretted about the return of Napoleon Bonaparte, a terrible massacre was perpetrated by British militiamen against American inmates at Dartmoor Prison in England.

This episode has been very nearly forgotten by history. Today the historian Nicholas Guyatt takes us back to the early nineteenth-century, to the days of the very last war between Great Britain and the United States of America, to explain just what happened.

Nicolas Guyatt is Professor of North American History at the University of Cambridge. His new book, The Hated Cage, is a forensic, erudite and absorbing account of the Dartmoor Massacre.

Today’s episode comes along with a few fabulous extras. Along with the usual episode page on our website, you can also read a beautifully-illustrated and introduced extract from The Hated Cage on Unseen Histories. And, for those of you who are very interested in this story, we added the full, uncut video of the conversation between Peter and Nicolas on our YouTube channel. Enjoy!

Show notes

Scene One: Ghent, 24 December 1814 – the signing of the treaty that would end the War of 1812.

Scene Two: Dartmoor, England. 26 March 1815. A mock trial is held by the inmates.

Scene Three: Dartmoor, 6 April 1815. The day of the massacre.

Memento: The effigy of Reuben Beasley