George Thomas, Dartmoor 5885
MSA SC 5496-51836
War of 1812 Prisoner of War, Annapolis, Maryland, 1814
Biography:
George Thomas was an African-American sailor from Annapolis, Maryland, who was incarcerated in England as a prisoner of war during the War of 1812. In the years preceeding the War of 1812, British press gangs would routinely impress American sailors into service for the Royal Navy to offset the loss of British sailors to the Napoleonic Wars. The Royal Navy impressed thousands of American sailors, and the issue became one of the leading causes of the War of 1812. Before the declaration of war, the American government responded to the problem of impressment by issuing seaman's protection certificates to sailors at customs ports throughout the country. Ideally, the certificates functioned as a means of identification for the sailors so they could verify their citizenship with the United States and thereby evade impressment. The certificates may have carried some influence in front of a British admiralty court, but on the high seas British press gangs routinely disregarded the American sailors' scraps of paper.1
Several years before the War of 1812, George Thomas received a seaman's protection certificate at the port of Philadelphia on May 27, 1809. The certificate describes him as a free black man, aged twenty-six, 5"6 tall, with black and wooly hair, and a black complexion. It also described him as having a sear on the side of the right eye, and a sear on the right leg. On the certificate, Thomas specified he was a native of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and left his mark - not his signature - which suggests he was illiterate.2 The certificate provides invaluable information about Thomas, but it is also significant because the United States Federal Government recognized him as a citizen of the country: a rare occurence for African Americans in the early nineteenth century.
Despite the certificate's symbolic significance, it could not protect Thomas from being captured by the Royal Navy. During the war, Thomas joined the crew of the privateer schooner Harlequin, Captain Brown, which sailed out of Portsmouth with ten guns and 115 men. Four days into a cruize, the Harlequin was captured off George's Shoal by the Bulwark on October 23, 1814.3 Mistaking the Bulwark for a merchant vessel, the Harlequin approached the British vessel, and when it discovered the ship's true identity was too close to escape.4 Once detained, the Harlequin's crew were forced under the latchway in the lower hold of the Bulwark, and then had their bags, hammocks, and other supplies dumped on them, which actually killed one crew member.5
Two months after being captured by the Bulwark, Thomas and the Harlequin's crew arrived at Dartmoor Prison on December 27, 1814. They arrived just three days after diplomats had signed the peace treaty at Ghent, but each country's legislature had to ratify the treaty before the war could officially end. Closely matching the 1809 protection certificate, the 1814 Dartmoor register describes Thomas as a stout Black seaman, age thirty-six, with a 5”7 stature, and a sear on the right cheek. It also lists his place of nativity as Annapolis. The age in the register is off slightly from the age in the certificate, but the height, nativity, and scar on the right side of the face perfectly match the George Thomas from the certificate. Thomas was joined on the Harlequin and at Dartmoor by Sam Jennings, an African-American sailor from Baltimore. The two men were not released from Dartmoor until July 3, 1815.6
They were released nearly five months after Congress had ratified the Treaty of Ghent on February 16, 1815, which formally ended the war. Despite the war's conclusion, prisoners remained at Dartmoor because American and British officials initially could not agree on which country should pay to transport the prisoners back to America. After the infamous Dartmoor Massacre on April 6, the countries quickly resolved their dispute and began transporting prisoners back home that month. Many African-american prisoners waited even longer because they would only travel on ships bound for northern ports, fearing they would be sold into slavery at southern ports.7 After temporarily losing his freedom in a British prison, Thomas did not want to lose his freedom permanently on an American plantation; he was an American citizen, not an American slave.
Citations:
1. Dixon, Ruth Priest, "Genealogical Fallout from the War of 1812" Prologue (Spring, 1992) Vol. 24 No. 1
2. George Thomas, May 27, 1809. Proofs of Citizenship Used to Apply for Seamen's Certificates for the Port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,1792–1861. NARA Microfilm publication M1880, Roll 11. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
3. Emmons, George Foster. The Navy of the United States from the Commencement, 1775 to 1853 (Washington: Gideon & Co., 1853).
4. "Late from Halifax" Newburyport Herald (Newburyport, MA) November 11, 1814.
5. "More of the Bulwark's Kindness!" New Hampshire Gazette (Portland, NH) May 9, 1815.
6. "Dartmoor Prison Register" UKNA: ADM 103/91.
7. Horsman, Reginald, "The Paradox of Dartmoor Prison" American Heritage (February, 1975) volume 26 issue 2.
researched and written by Charles Weisenberger
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