Black Hole of Calcutta

a dungeon in Fort Williams, Calcutta. During an insurrection of the natives, the English garrison of this fort, then a trading station, were taken captive by the nabob, Dowlah. On the evening of June 20, 1756, 146 prisoners were crowded for safe keeping into the little dungeon of the place only twenty feet square. The room was so crowded that the door could only be closed with difficulty. The room had but two small windows. In that warm climate, the men were in a few moments in a violent perspiration, and began to call loudly for air. The native keepers, however, dared not awaken the nabob, who had gone to sleep. The prisoners raved and cursed, and fought for a position near the little barred windows. They offered the guards large sums of money to exert themselves to secure larger quarters, but the poor Hindu guards were powerless. They tried to pass in water through the windows, but the amount was so small and the men were so frantic that it was spilled without doing much good. In the morning but twenty-three men were taken out of the Black Hole alive. The nabob appeared utterly unconcerned. It is a little satisfaction to know that he was murdered a few months later by a political rival. For an account of the Black Hole atrocity by a master of description, the reader is referred to Macaulay's Essay on Lord Clive. See India; Clive; Lucknow