Life of a prisoner in 1800's

The life of a prisoner was very different from that of today's prisons. The prisoners were treated as animals and considered less of a human because of their lawlessness. They were made to right the wrongs that they have committed either through "physical pain applied in degrading, often ferociously cruel ways, and endured mutilation, or was branded, tortured, put to death; he was mulcted in fines, deprived of liberty, or adjudged as a slave" (Griffiths 157). …

…was assigned a small cell made of hard walls, floors covered in dirt and rodents, and a bed. If the prisoner was lucky, this bed consisted of a tiny hammock tied to opposite walls, but often times it was made of a wooden bench or the floor. For meals the prisoners were barely fed, but if they were, small rations of bread and water were given. Many times the prisoners died of starvation and dehydration