Thompson, George. Prison Life and Reflections; or, A Narrative of the Arrest, Trial, Conviction, Imprisonment, Treatment, Observations, Reflections, and Deliverance of Work, Burr, and Thompson, who suffered an Unjust and Cruel Imprisonment in Missouri Penitentiary, for Attempting to Aid some Slaves to Liberty. Three parts in one volume. Hartford: Published by A. Work, 1849. Third Edition. [12550]
Black leather spine with black cloth boards, the spine is very worn with some loss, the joints are cracked with the boards weakly attached, 7 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches. Lacks the first free end paper. [i]-xii, [13]-377 pp. Dampstain in the top third of the first and last several leaves, light at front and darker at back. A collectible book with condition problems, priced accordingly. Fair. Hardcover.
Dumond, A Bibliography of Antislavery in America, p. 109. The first edition was published in Oberlin in 1847.
The pages of this book "tell you much about the inside of a prison, and its suffering inmates. They are not confined entirely to the strict history of Alanson Work, James E. Burr, and George Thompson - they tell you much about other prisoners - much about the officers - something about the Governors, and Legislators, and Ministers of a slave State - they tell you a little about the poor slave - the spirit of slaveholders - the influence and effect of slavery, and numerous incidents, with brief reflections on various subjects." - so begins the Preface to this interesting narrative. The book relies upon the journals kept by the prisoners while in confinement.
Alanson Work, James E. Burr, and George Thompson were students from the pro-abolitionist Mission Institute in Quincy, Illinois. In 1841 they were arrested, tried, and imprisoned in Missouri for attempting to rescue slaves and send them north on the Underground Railroad. Despite there being no Missouri law explicitly forbidding anyone from helping slaves to escape, and in fact, they helped no slaves to escape, they were convicted of grand larceny ("Negro stealing") and they were each sentenced to twelve years of hard labor in the Missouri State Penitentiary. Alanson Work was pardoned in 1845, James E. Burr in 1846, and George Thompson served four years and eleven months of his sentence.
This Narrative was an influential abolitionist work, exposing the realities of the American legal system's defense of slavery, and the harsh conditions suffered by those imprisoned for the cause.
