The prisoners
In the event, some 114 diggers, including some wounded, were rounded up. It should be noted that like so many "facts" about Eureka, there's not agreement on the numbers of these prisoners. Those able to walk, including ambulatory wounded, were marched off to the government camp about 2 kilometres away, with the non-ambulatory wounded following behind in carts. Two of the walking wounded collapsed and died by the roadside. On arrival, the remaining prisoners were pushed into an overcrowded lockup, herded together in a space normally used for 6 prisoners.
On Monday morning, the authorities, concerned about the reaction if large numbers of the stockaders died in custody (at least 1 and possibly more, did), moved the prisoners to the larger camp storehouse.
In the end, the authorities had to release most of the prisoners, and the Americans managed to get all their white comrades out of jail. This led to the British holding just 14, including one man who was not involved in the fracas at the stockade, Henry Seekamp, the "firebrand" editor of the Ballarat Times.
Those still being held by the government were very badly treated. This is a copy of a letter from the prisoners, printed in The Age, 14 February, 1855:
On Monday morning, the authorities, concerned about the reaction if large numbers of the stockaders died in custody (at least 1 and possibly more, did), moved the prisoners to the larger camp storehouse.
In the end, the authorities had to release most of the prisoners, and the Americans managed to get all their white comrades out of jail. This led to the British holding just 14, including one man who was not involved in the fracas at the stockade, Henry Seekamp, the "firebrand" editor of the Ballarat Times.
Those still being held by the government were very badly treated. This is a copy of a letter from the prisoners, printed in The Age, 14 February, 1855:
To the Sheriff of the Colony of Victoria, SIR – As the chief officer of the Government regulating Prison Discipline in Victoria, we, the undersigned Ballarat state prisoners, respectfully beg to acquaint you with the mode of our treatment since our imprisonment in this Gaol, in the hope that you will have the goodness to make some alterations for the better.
At seven o’clock in the morning we are led into a small yard of about thirty yards long and eight wide where we must either stand, walk or sent (print not readable) upon the cold earth (no seats or benches were afforded us), and which at meal times serves chair, table, &c., with the additional consequence of having our food saturated with sand (print not readable) and with every kind of disgusting filth which the wind may happen to stir up within the yard. We are locked in about three o’clock in the afternoon, four or five of us together, in a cell whose dimensions are three feet by twelve, being thus debarred from the free air of heaven for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. The food is of the very worst description ever used by civilised beings. We are debarred the use of writing materials except for purposes of pressing necessity ; are never permitted to see a newspaper ; and strictly prohibited the use of tobacco and snuff ; we have been subjected to the annoyance of being sometimes stripped naked, a dozen men together, when a process of ‘searching’ takes place which is debasing to any human being, but perfectly revolting to men whose sensibilities have never been blunted by familiarity with crime – an ordeal of examination, and the coarse audacity with which it is perpetrated, as would make manhood blush, and which it would assuredly resent, as an outrage upon common decency in any other place than a prison. And again, when the visiting Justice takes his rounds, we are made to stand bareheaded before him, as if &c.
We give the Government the credit of believing that it is not its wish we should be treated with such unsparing malignity and apparent malice, and also believe that, if you, Sir, the representative of Government, in this Department, had been previously been made acquainted with this mode of treatment you would have caused it to be altered. But we have hitherto refrained from troubling the Government on the subject, in expectation of a speedy trial, which now appears to be postponed sign die.
We, each of us, can look back with laudable pride upon our lives, and not a page in the record of the past can unfold a single transgression which would degrade us before man, or for which, we would be condemned before our Maker.
And we naturally ask why we should be treated as if our lives had been one succession of crime, or as if society breathe freely once more at being rid of our dangerous and demoralising presence. Even the Sunday that to all men in Christendom is a day of relaxation and comparative enjoyment, is for us one of gloom and weariness, being locked up in a dreary cell from three o’clock Saturday evening, til seven on Sunday morning (except for about an hour and a half on Sunday), thus locked up in a narrow dungeon for forty consecutive hours, we appeal to you, and ask was there ever worse treatment in the worst days of the Roman Inquisition, for men whose reputation had never been sullied with crime?
We therefore humbly submit that, as the State only looks at present to our being well secured we ought to be treated with every liberality consistent with our safe custody, and that any unnecessary harshness or arrogant display of power, is nothing more or less than wanton cruelty. Some of us for instance, could while away several hours each day in writing, an occupation which, while it would fill up the dreary vacuum of a prison life, would lend elasticity to the mind, as would the moderate use of snuff and tobacco, cheer it and soothe that mental irritation consequent upon seclusion. But that system of discipline which would paralyse the mind and debilitate the body – that would destroy intellectual as well as physical energy and vigor, cannot certainly be of human origin. Trusting you will remove these sources of annoyance and complaint, We beg to subscribe ourselves, Sir Your obedient servants,