Fry, Elizabeth Gurney, 1780-1845; Prison reformers -- Biography
o'clock as possible, following their monitors or wardswomen to the
forms which are placed in order to receive them. I think I can
never forget the impression made upon my feelings at this sight.
Women from every part of Great Britain, of every age and condition
below the lower middle rank, were assembled in mute silence, except
when the interrupted breathing of their sucking infants informed us
of the unhealthy state of these innocent partakers in their
parents' punishments. The matron read; I could not refrain from
tears. The women wept also; several were under the sentence of
death. Swain, who had just received her respite, sat next me; and
on my left hand sat Lawrence, _alias_ Woodman, surrounded by her
four children, and only waiting the birth of another, which she
hourly expects, to pay the forfeit of her life, as her husband has
done for the same crime a short time before.
Such various, such acute, and such new feelings passed through my
mind that I could hardly support the reflection that what I saw was
only to be compared to an atom in the abyss of vice, and
consequently misery, of this vast metropolis. The hope of doing the
least lasting good seemed to vanish, and to leave me in fearful
apathy. The prisoners left the room in order. Each monitor took
charge of the work in her class on retiring. We proceeded to other
wards, some containing forgers, coiners, and thieves; and almost
all these vices were engrafted on the most deplorable root of
sinful dissipation. Many of the women are married; their families
are in some instances permitted to be with them, if very young;
their husbands, the partners of their crimes, are often found to be
on the men's side of the prison, or on their way to Botany Bay....
They appear to be aware of the true value of character, to know
what is right, and to forsake it in action. Finding these feelings
yet alive, if properly purified and directed it may become a
foundation on which a degree of reformation can be built. Thus they
conduct themselves more calmly and decently to each other, they are
more orderly and quiet, refrain from bad language, chew tobacco
more cautiously, surrender the use of the fireplace, permit doors
and windows to be opened and shut to air or warm the prison,
reprove their children with less violence, borrow and lend useful
articles to each other kindly, put on their attire with modesty,
and abstain from slanderous and reproachful words.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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