War
of 1812 POWs in England
Section
1: Content
There is only one place in England that housed
prisoners from the War of 1812. That
place is Dartmoor Prison, found in the village of Princeton in the English
county of Devon. Near Princeton is a park area, or moor, that is named Dartmoor—thus
the name of the prison. This prison held
prisoners of war until well after the official peace treaties were signed. It has a church, St. Michael and All Angels that was built by the POWs. The stained-glass East Window is a tribute to
those men who died in captivity at the prison.
There are also over 270 soldiers buried in or near the church graveyard. The prison barracks were first built to hold
French soldiers, captives from the Napoleonic Wars. One of the main leaders among the prisoners
was a black privateer from Maryland, nick-named King Dick. (His real name is uncertain, but it is
possible that he was Richard Crafus, or Richard Seavers.) This man had great influence among the prisoners,
and he was able to “organize” his barracks to suit his own needs. He is mentioned in many of the journals that
were kept by fellow prisoners, and seems to have run a safe haven from a prison
gang named the Rough Alleys or Rough Allies.
Section
2: Creative Activities
Map: Use the
outline map of England. Label Devon
county, and Locate and label Princeton.
Find the region that is called Dartmoor.
Shade in that area. (DOK 1)
Read: “Fog
lifts to reveal a Gothic prison” newspaper article. Write one paragraph about the church as
described in this source. Remember that
your paragraph has to have complete sentences, and use proper writing
conventions. (DOK 2)
Draw/Sketch/Build:
A model of a gothic church. You
can opt for the outside or inside view, or even design a stained-glass window
of this church. Prior to beginning your
project, be sure to research the requirements for “gothic” church architecture.
(DOK 4)
Write one journal entry for a prisoner held in this
location. (DOK 3)
Compose one letter home to your family in the United
States, and tell them about your experiences in this location. Be certain to mention the weather, the fellow
prisoners, and what kind of entertainment you have here. (DOK 3)
Write the epithet for the tombstone for an American
soldier or privateer who died in prison.
Be sure to include the birthdate, deathdate, and short “rememberance”
for this man. (DOK 3)
Section 3: Standards
3-5
Band PA Common Core: English Language Arts
CC.1.2:
Reading Informational Text
CC.1.2.3.B: Ask and answer questions about the text and
make inference from text; refer to text to support responses.
CC.1.2.3.G: Use information gained from text features to
demonstrate understanding of a text.
CC.1.4.3.I: Support an opinion with reasons.
CC.1.4.3.K: Use a variety of words and sentence types to
appeal to the audience.
CC.1.4.3.L: Demonstrate a grade appropriate command of
the conventions of stand English grammar and spelling
CC.1.4.3.M: Write narratives to develop real or imagined
experiences or events.
See
activities indicated above
DOK
1: identify, label, match, draw
DOK
2: use context cues, summarize, infer,
read
DOK
3: cite evidence, formulate, explain
DOK
4: create, design, synthesize
Domain
1a, 1b, 1d, 2b, 3a, 3c, 3e
War of 1812 links
General article about POWs in Britain
When prisoners were exchanged, these were the terms:
Tombstone Epitaphs link
This is certainly an understudied topic, Jean! You can connect it or modify it to a number of other time periods, unfortuntanely, since there seem to always be prisoners of war. If you need to make a Pennsylvania connection, there are examples from York County (Camp Security for the revolution) and Adams County (I believe WWII) though they don't have cathedrals!
ReplyDeleteGreat topic! I believe children of all ages could grasp the idea of the dangers and risks of war and empathy for POWs. Your resource links contain interesting information on this topic and would seem to be geared for middle school. I would like to pose this question to the readers of this post: If we wanted to teach this to primary students, what resources for reading or teaching are available?
ReplyDeleteI have looked around a bit for elementary resources for this topic, but most of the 1812 POW literature is for middle school/above readers. The newspaper article is from the travel section of the Philadelphia Inquirer, but even though I have a scan, I can't figure out how to post it (and it's probably a copyright violation too). Anyway, the POW idea would certainly transfer to other time periods, but I was trying to match it up as best as I could to the timeframe of our coursework.
ReplyDeleteIf one wanted to use something from the Civil War time period, the excellent book Pink and Say, by Patricia Polacco, would be appropriate for a POW story.
ReplyDelete