Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison. English-only reading by default; switch among English, Chinese, and Spanish, or compare languages side by side.
This chapter develops the memoir’s account of Chapter XLIV. I FIND THE FENIANS WITH ME IN THE TOILS., connecting personal narrative with the financial, legal, and prison-world setting of the period. The chapter’s opening perspective is: I had, of course, for many years heard much of the Fenian prisoners in the English prisons, particularly Sergeant McCarty and William O’Brien. Soon after my arrival at Chatham I was placed in the same party with them.
This chapter is for readers following Bidwell’s memoir chapter by chapter, especially the section titled “Chapter XLIV. I FIND THE FENIANS WITH ME IN THE TOILS..” It is most useful for readers interested in financial crime history, nineteenth-century banking culture, criminal justice, prison memoir, and the social setting of the period.
Read “Chapter XLIV. I FIND THE FENIANS WITH ME IN THE TOILS.” as a historical memoir rather than guidance. The banking procedures, legal assumptions, public reputation, social judgments, travel conditions, and prison practices described belong to Bidwell’s nineteenth-century setting and may not match modern institutions.