Bridewell Prison, New York City, New York

Bridewell Prison was in what is now City Hall Park. It was designed by Theophilus Hardenbrook in 1775. The jail, poorhouse and another building known as the new Bridewell were used by the British to house American prisoners of war. Construction was interrupted by the Declaration of Independence. The Bridewell, named for a London jail, was the most deadly of the prisons. It had no windows, only bars. The winter winds took the lives of hundreds of ill-fed patriots. There were other prisons in New York. Churches were used along with a sugar warehouse south of what is now Liberty Street.

Many thousands died in prison ships in the Harbor. William Cunningham was the provost marshal of the British jails. It was he who hung Nathan Hale. Cunningham is reported to have made a deathbed confession to starving 2,000 prisoners in the city as he sold their allotted rations for personal profit. He confessed to executing outright 275 American prisoners and “other obnoxious persons.”

Women who visited the jails to speak to their husbands through the windows were beaten with canes and ramrods.