195 Old Newgate Prison and Copper Mine

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

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