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The Hated Cage

An American Tragedy in Britain’s Most Terrifying Prison

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About this listen

The War of 1812—the last time Britain and America went to war with each other.

British Redcoats torch the White House, and 6,000 American sailors languish in the world’s largest prisoner-of-war camp, Dartmoor. A myriad of races and backgrounds, with some prisoners as young as 13.

Known as the ‘hated cage’, Dartmoor wasn’t a place you’d expect to be full of life and invention. Yet prisoners taught each other foreign languages and science, put on plays and staged boxing matches. In daring efforts to escape, they lived every prison-break cliché—how to hide the tunnel entrances, what to do with the earth.

Drawing on meticulous research, The Hated Cage documents the extraordinary communities these men built within the prison—and the terrible massacre that destroyed these worlds.

©2022 Nicholas Guyatt (P)2022 W F Howes Europe Great Britain Military England Imperialism War Latin American
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Mark Elstob's intelligent performance is the key to this well-researched history book about American prisoners of war in Dartmoor prison. His sardonic, amused tone and perfect diction keep things tight but sprightly as the book draws together a large cast of characters, telling the whole story of privateers and press-ganged sailors who made a community within a granite prison on a freezing moor, as they waited for the end of the war and their release. There are escape attempts and a bloody massacre, but the best bits are where the prisoners made the most of their lives there, running roulette tables and performing Shakespeare plays.

Fascinating story, intelligently told

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