195 Morgan Bengel, Old Newgate Prison and Copper Mine
Ben Franklin's World
Liz Covart
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 17 July 2018
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1705 a group of colonists in Simsbury, Connecticut founded a copper mine, which the Connecticut General Assembly purchased and turned into a prison in 1773.
How did an old copper mine function as a prison?
Morgan Bengel, a Museum Assistant at the Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine, a Connecticut State Historic Site, helps us investigate both the history of early American mining and the history of early American prisons by taking us on a tour of the Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine in East Granby, Connecticut.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/195
Sponsor Links
- Omohundro Institute
- Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest (Listener-Only 40-Percent Discount Code 01BFW)
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Colonial Jamestown)
- Episode 080: Jen Manion, Liberty’s Prisoners: Prisons and Prison Life in Early America
- Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
- Episode 170: Wendy Warren: New England Bound: Slavery in Early New England
- Episode 181: Virginia DeJohn Anderson: The Martyr and the Traitor: Nathan Hale and Moses Dunbar
Helpful Show Links
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ben Franklin's World is a production of the |
| 0:02.4 | O'Mohandro Institute. |
| 0:03.8 | Welcome to Ben Franklin's World, |
| 0:07.4 | podcast about early American history with Liz Covert. |
| 0:11.4 | The study of history is key to understanding who we are and how we can |
| 0:15.2 | affect the better future. Ben Franklin's world will introduce you to historical people |
| 0:20.3 | and events that have impacted and shaped our present day world. And now, people and |
| 0:24.1 | now here's your host Liz Koval. |
| 0:26.9 | Hello and welcome to episode 195 of Ben Franklin's world. |
| 0:31.8 | The podcast dedicated to helping you learn more about how the people |
| 0:35.9 | and events of our early American past have shaped the present day world we live in. |
| 0:40.9 | Today's exploration begins with an age-old tale. |
| 0:45.0 | Colonists migrating to North America in the hopes that they'll find precious metals. |
| 0:50.0 | Now, unlike the colonists and adventures who followed the likes of Hernando de Soto out in the west, |
| 0:55.4 | or those who arrived in the east in Jamestown, Virginia, there was a small group of colonists |
| 1:01.2 | who settled in Simsbury, Connecticut, just north of present-day Hartford, and around |
| 1:05.8 | 1705 they found not gold, not silver, but copper. |
| 1:11.8 | So in part, this is an episode about mining in colonial America. |
| 1:15.0 | But it's also an episode that explores crime and punishment in early America too, |
| 1:20.0 | because in 1773, the Connecticut General Assembly purchased the old Simsbury |
| 1:25.6 | Copper Mine and turned its tunnels into a prison. So how did an old copper mine function as a prison? |
| 1:32.0 | This is just one of the many questions How did an old Copper Mine function as a prison? |
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