Suzanne Spencer-Wood wrote:

>So when was the Williamsburg Asylum built? Can you give references
>for this and the Richmond prison?

Quoting from the old standard Virginia history textbook, Cavalier
Commonwealth (1957), page 509:

"In this field the Old Dominion had an early start, since it opened in
1773, while still a royal colony, the first institution for the insane in
North America."

On page 497 of the same volume:

"The oldest of the penal institutions in the state is the penitentiary,
construction of which was begun in 1797."

Latrobe's original penitentiary, with its semicircular plan, was demolished
and replaced by a more modern structure, which has subsequently been
demolished. Check the Latrobe Papers publication for details.

Walnut Street Prison in Philadelphia, on the other hand, was a workhouse
with some solitary cells, hardly a penitentiary. Pennsylvania didn't build
a penitentiary until Eastern State was built a generation later, and this
is erroneously cited as the "first penitentiary" in America by the chamber
of commerce types.

Any Virginian is aware of these two dates, because they are taught in
school, like other facts. I don't know what they teach yankees, but I do
have a copy of the Discovery of the Asylum, which is slanted, to put it
mildly.

               Ned Heite  ([log in to unmask])
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* Hell is sliced white bread, canned light beer, *
* and kitchen sinks with garbage grinders.       *
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