[Illustration: THE RUINS OF NEWGATE PRISON]

More prisoners were soon committed to Newgate. "Burglars, horse-
thieves, and counterfeiters," according to the law, were sent
there and they were set to work mining copper, but instead of
doing this, they dug their way out with the mining tools; so
workshops were built aboveground where they made nails, boots and
shoes, wagons, and other things. They slept in the mine as
before, but at daylight they were called and came up the ladder
in squads of three at a time under a guard, climbing as well as
they could with fetters on their legs. They took their meals in
the workshops and were chained to the forges and workbenches
until late in the afternoon, when they went down again into the
mine for the night.

When the Revolutionary War began, in 1775, political prisoners
were sent to Newgate in Connecticut, just as such prisoners had
often been sent to old Newgate in England. These men in America
were the Tories, or Loyalists, who sympathized with the British
and were often found giving them information and help. To protect
themselves the Americans arrested them. Some of the first were
sent by Washington from the camp at Cambridgik where the American
army was besieging Boston.

Here is a part of his letter to the Committee of Safety at
Simsbury; its date shows that it was written several months
before the Declaration of Independence by the Continental
Congress in Philadelphia:--