Recollections of Windsor Prison;: Containing Sketches of its History and Discipline, with Appropriate Strictures and Moral and Religious ReflectionReynolds, John, of Vermont
History
Recollections of Windsor Prison;: Containing Sketches of its History and Discipline, with Appropriate Strictures and Moral and Religious Reflection
Reynolds, John, of Vermont
Vermont State Prison
Much as French and others are to be blamed for their conduct towards
this man, the _burden_ of condemnation rests on those, who were bound
by the oath of their office, to protect the prisoners from "cruelty
and inhumanity" in the guard. Ought such personal feelings to be
indulged towards a prostrate victim? Can that man be worthy of any
office, who can stoop to such criminal meanness? I am told that French
has since become a christian, and I sincerely hope he has; for I am
well persuaded that it will require many years time, and many a bitter
tear, to purify his conscience from the iniquity of the "_corn
stalks_."
COLLIER.
This man entered the prison under the influence of a cold which he had
taken in gaol. He was in the bloom of youth, and as bright as young
men in general. Not feeling well, he did not always do so much work as
was required of him, and consequently soon began to feel that he was
in a prison. The iron storm of punishment began to beat upon him, and
he was so affected by it, that he lost the use of his limbs in a great
measure, of his speech for some time, and finally of his reason. The
treatment he received would make the records of the inquisition blush.
Starvation, chains, and the cold cell were the only mercies he
experienced. At a certain time when he was unable to speak, as he was
sitting in the cook-room, the Warden entered, and declared that he
would make him speak or kill him. To effect this, he took him by the
hair of his head, and dragged him round the room, pulling and jerking
him with all his might, and crying all the time, "speak or I'll kill
you!"--Reader, have you ever read Howard's Prisons of Europe? It was
in _Europe_ that _he_ found so much misery and cruelty; but this is in
_America_. Yet here, see that Warden of a prison, dragging a prisoner
by the hair of his head, and declaring his intention to kill him if he
did not speak. Inhuman man! where is your heart, if you have any? Will
God suffer you to go unpunished for thus trampling on His authority,
and abusing your fellow man?
After exhausting all his strength, the Warden gave up, without either
making him speak, or killing him. Every prisoner's heart burned within
him, when he saw what this poor unfortunate man was suffering, and
what might become his own doom. I wonder that every one of them did
not spring forward, and rescue the sufferer from the wicked hands of
that heartless tyrant. I wonder that the earth which bore up the
lion-hearted despot, did not open and destroy him. But this is not the
end of Collier's sufferings from the same man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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