John Murrell (bandit)
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John Murrell (bandit)
John Andrews Murrell (1806 – November 21, 1844), the "Great Western Land Pirate", was a 19th-century bandit and criminal operating along the Natchez Trace and Mississippi River, in the southern United States. He was also known as John A. Murrell, and his surname was commonly spelled as Murel and Murrel. His exploits were widely known, and he became a legendary figure in fiction, film and television in the 20th century. He was first convicted as a youth for the crime of horse theft. He was branded with an "HT", flogged, and sentenced to six years in prison. He was released in 1829. Murrell was convicted the second and last time for the crime of slave stealing, in the Circuit Court of Madison County, Tennessee. He was incarcerated in the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville from 1834 to 1844. Early life According to Tennessee prison records, John Andrews Murrell was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, and raised in Williamson County, Tennessee. Murrell was the ...
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Tennessee State Prison
Tennessee State Prison is a former correctional facility located six miles west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee on Cockrill Bend. It opened in 1898 and has been closed since 1992 because of overcrowding concerns. The mothballed facility was severely damaged by an EF3 tornado in the tornado outbreak of March 2–3, 2020. History The first Tennessee State Penitentiary, located on what is now 15th Avenue between Church Street and Charlotte Avenue, became operational on January 1, 1831 with 200 cells, a warden’s residence, and a hospital. Modeled after the Auburn Penitentiary in both discipline and design, the prison was the first of its kind in Tennessee and the South. Inmates were subject to practices championed by the Auburn model, such as "during the day the prisoners, with downcast eyes, labored silently together in workshops, while at night they slept alone in separate cells. Under no circumstances could they communicate with one another, and only when necessity demanded ...
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Bandit
Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an individual or in groups. Banditry is a vague concept of criminality and in modern usage can be synonymous for gangsterism, brigandage, wikt:marauder, marauding, and Theft, thievery. Definitions The term ''bandit'' (introduced to English via Italian around 1590) originates with the Germanic law, early Germanic legal practice of outlawing criminals, termed ''*bannan'' (English :wikt:ban, ban). The legal term in the Holy Roman Empire was ''Acht'' or '':wikt:Reichsacht, Reichsacht'', translated as "Imperial ban". In modern Italian, the equivalent word "bandito" literally means banned or a banned person. The Oxford English Dictionary, New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (NED) defined "bandit" in 1885 as "one who is Proscription, pr ...
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Solitary Confinement
Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additional security equipment in comparison to the general population. Solitary confinement is a punitive tool within the prison system to discipline or separate disruptive prison inmates who are security risks to other inmates, the prison staff, or the prison itself. However, solitary confinement is also used to protect inmates whose safety is threatened by other inmates by separating them from the general population. In a 2017 review, "a robust scientific literature has established the negative psychological effects of solitary confinement", leading to "an emerging consensus among correctional as well as professional, mental health, legal, and human rights organizations to drastically limit the use of solitary confinement." The United Nations ...
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Lockstep
In the United States, lockstep marching or simply lockstep is marching in a very close single file in such a way that the leg of each person in the file moves in the same way and at the same time as the corresponding leg of the person immediately in front of him, so that their legs stay very close all the time. History Originally it was used in drilling soldiers. Each soldier stepped on the point just vacated by the foot of the soldier in front of him. Thus the soldiers stayed in position to form close files. Lockstep marching was a characteristic trait of American prisons of the 19th century. "Inmates formed in single file, right hand on the shoulder of the man in front, left hand on the side; the convicts then stepped off in unison, raising the right foot high and shuffling with the left." The reason for the shuffling step was the chain that connected the legs of a chain gang. In the Auburn Prison, John Cray developed the following form of the lockstep, as part of the pena ...
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Prison Uniforms
A prison uniform is the standardized clothes worn by prisoners. It usually includes visually distinct clothes worn to indicate the wearer is a prisoner, in clear distinction from civil clothing. A prison uniform serves the purpose to make prisoners instantly identifiable, to limit risks through concealed objects and to prevent injuries through undesignated clothing objects. It can also spoil attempts of escape as prison uniforms typically use a design and color scheme that is easily noticed and identified even at a greater distance. Wearing a prison uniform is typically done only reluctantly and is often perceived as stigmatizing, and as an invasion into the autonomy of decision. The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners first adopted in 1955 and amended in 2015 as "Mandela Rules" prohibit degrading or humiliating clothing, requiring in Rule 19 that: #Every prisoner who is not allowed to wear his or her own clothing shall be provided with an outfit of clothing su ...
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Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts, especially those recently released from prison, is "ex-con" ("ex-convict"). Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences tend not to be described as "convicts". The label of "ex-convict" usually has lifelong implications, such as social stigma or reduced opportunities for employment. The federal government of Australia, for instance, will not, in general, employ an ex-convict, while some state and territory governments may limit the time for or before which a former convict may be employed. Historical usage The particular use of the term "convict" in the English-speaking world was to describe the huge numbers of criminals, both male and female, who clogged British gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (date ...
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Auburn Penitentiary System
The Auburn system (also known as the New York system and Congregate system) is a penal method of the 19th century in which persons worked during the day in groups and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times. The silent system evolved during the 1820s at Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York, as an alternative to and modification of the Pennsylvania system of solitary confinement, which it gradually replaced in the United States. Whigs favored this system because it promised to rehabilitate criminals by teaching them personal discipline and respect for work, property, and other people. Among notable elements of the Auburn system were striped uniforms, lockstep, and silence. Prison life During the 19th century, prisoners had no rights nor any opportunity to live semi-comfortably. The Auburn system established several characteristics that were unique to the world of disciplinary conditions. Silence was the biggest factor among rules for the pri ...
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Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools, agricultural implements, decorative and religious items, cooking utensils, and weapons. There was an historical distinction between the heavy work of the blacksmith and the more delicate operation of a whitesmith, who usually worked in Goldsmith, gold, Silversmith, silver, pewter, or the finishing steps of fine steel. The place where a blacksmith works is called variously a smithy, a forge or a blacksmith's shop. While there are many people who work with metal such as farriers, wheelwrights, and Armourer, armorers, in former times the blacksmith had a general knowledge of how to make and repair many things, from the most complex of weapons and armor to simple things ...
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Denmark, Tennessee
Denmark is an unincorporated community and former city in Madison County, Tennessee, United States roughly 14 miles southwest of Jackson. The zip code is 38391. Although it was once a thriving farming community, a combination of man-made and natural disasters has reduced Denmark to a few remaining houses and the historic antebellum Denmark Presbyterian Church. History Denmark was one of the first-settled places in Madison County. The land on which it was incorporated in 1854 was opened by Thomas Sanders in 1822. Presbyterian and Methodist churches were established in the area in 1833 and 1842. By January 1844, the community had been sufficiently populated that the Tennessee General Assembly incorporated an academy for education of white boys. Prior to the Civil War, Denmark flourished and rivaled neighboring Jackson in size. During the American Civil War, Union soldiers repulsed a Confederate raid near Denmark in the Battle of Britton's Lane in September 1862. Union troop ...
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Williamson County, Tennessee
Williamson County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 247,726. The county seat is Franklin, and the county is located in Middle Tennessee. The county is named after Hugh Williamson, a North Carolina politician who signed the U.S. Constitution. Adjusted for relative cost of living, Williamson County is one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. Williamson County is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the 19th century, tobacco and hemp were cultivated here, and planters also raised blooded livestock, including horses and cattle. History Pre-Civil War The Tennessee General Assembly created Williamson County on October 26, 1799, from a portion of Davidson County. This territory had long been inhabited by at least five Native American cultures, including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Shawnee. It is home to two Mississippian-period mou ...
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Incarceration
Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessarily imply a place of confinement, with bolts and bars, but may be exercised by any use or display of force (such as placing one in handcuffs), lawfully or unlawfully, wherever displayed, even in the open street. People become prisoners, wherever they may be, by the mere word or touch of a duly authorized officer directed to that end. Usually, however, imprisonment is understood to imply an actual confinement in a jail or prison employed for the purpose according to the provisions of the law. Sometimes gender imbalances occur in imprisonment rates, with incarceration of males proportionately more likely than incarceration of females. History Africa Before colonisation, imprisonment was used in sub-Saharan Africa for pre-trial detention, ...
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Madison County, Tennessee
Madison County is a county located in the western part of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 98,823. Its county seat is Jackson. Madison County is included in the Jackson, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Madison County was formed in 1821, and named for founding father and president, James Madison. The county was part of lands the United States purchased from the Chickasaw in 1818.Harbert Alexander"Madison County" ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture''; retrieved October 22, 2013. After Congressional passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, most Chickasaw were forced out of the state and west to Indian Territory beyond the Mississippi River. Pinson Mounds, one of the largest Woodland period (c. 1-500CE) mound complexes in the United States, is located in Madison County. It has the second-tallest earthwork mound in the United States. Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of w ...
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