John Madden
MSA SC 5496-51753
War of 1812 Prisoner of War, Talbot County, Maryland, 1814
Biography:
John Madden was one of the nearly 200 African-American sailors from Maryland to be incarcerated as prisoners of war in Britain during the War of 1812. A Talbot County freedom certificate from August 28, 1811 describes him as 23 years old, 5"7 3/4 tall, with a rather bright complexion and small scars near his right temple, his right eye brow, the forepart of his neck, and his hands. The certificate also specifices that he was born free and raised in Talbot County, Maryland.1
Over four years after the date on the freedom certificate, Madden became entangled in the second war between Britain and America. Madden was serving as a seaman on the merchant vessel Netterville when the ship was taken by His Majesty's Ship Onyx on December 25, 1814 off Saint Domingo. Madden was then transported by His Majesty's Ship Denmark to Plymouth Prison in England, where he was received on March 2, 1815. The very next day, he and the rest of the Netterville crew were discharged to Dartmoor Prison.2 To get to Dartmoor, the men were marched seventeen miles mostly uphill, which would have been particularly arduous for sailors who had spent months at Sea.3 The 1815 Dartmoor Prison record verifies that John was received at the prison on March 3, and also describes him as a stout black, native of Talbot, 26 years old, 5”8 ½ tall, which closely resembles the description in the earlier 1811 Talbot County freedom certificate.4
The Talbot County native was joined on the Netterville and at Dartmoor by four other African-American sailors from Maryland: Peter Cooper, John Hindman, William Macketeer, and William Blackston. At Dartmoor, the men encountered constant hardship such as limited rations, rampant disease, and racial discrimination.5 Despite such adversity, John Madden survived his experience as a prisoner of war as the Dartmoor Prison ledger lists him as being released on July 11, 1815, several months after the formal conclusion of the war.6
Citations:
1. Talbot County Court (Freedom Certificates) 1807-1815 MSA CM1193-1
2. "Plymouth Prison Records" UKNA: ADM 103/270
3. Bolster, W. Jeffrey. Black Jacks: African-American Seamen in the Age of Sail (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1997) pg. 104
4. "Dartmoor Prison Records" UKNA: ADM 103/91
5. Horsman, Reginald. "Paradox of Dartmoor Prison," American Heritage 26 (february, 1975)
6. "Dartmoor Prison Records" UKNA: ADM 103/91
Researched and written by Charles Weisenberger
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