Implements of torture, and their dangerous effects illustrated.
Title
Implements of torture, and their dangerous effects illustrated The iron gag of its natural size locked upon Mathias Maccumsey, a convict from Lancaster County sentenced to the cells for manslaughter, who dies with it in his mouth, in the Eastern State Penitentiary , of Pennsylvania, June 1833
Description
Illustrated handbill containing an image of the "iron gag," an iron palet placed over the tongue and chained around the jaw. Also contains a paragraph of text calling for the abolition of the device after condemning its use on the convict "for merely speaking to a fellow prisoner" as antithetical to the "liberty, equality, and a just enjoyment of the rights" espoused by the people." Maccumsey was a 44 year old man serving his second of twelve years for murder when punished with the iron gag after continually talking to inmates, an infraction at the prison founded upon Quaker principles of solitude and silence as measures for reform., Not in Wainwright., Thomas McElwee was a member of the legislative investigative committee monitoring Eastern State Penitentiary who wrote the critical "A Concise History of the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania :...." (Philadelphia, 1835)., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 115, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Ba 263 Ak 53
Creator
Akin, James, ca. 1773-1846
Date
c1835
Location
Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Ba 263 Ak 53