“She is the beauty of this place”: Elizabeth Velora Elwell and the Role of Prisoner Participation and Deviance at Eastern State Penitentiary

Abstract

Elizabeth Elwell represented nineteenth-century reformers’ worst fears: a woman fallen from grace who maintained an exceptional understanding of social norms and an ability to manipulate those norms to meet her needs. While imprisoned at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Elwell documented the extensive web of relationships she managed within the prison. Incarcerated during a transformative period in United States history—the Civil War—Elwell maintained a romantic relationship with a black inmate, in direct opposition to the racial prejudices of the era. Elwell’s experience demonstrates that, though often abused and neglected, women used their lower position in nineteenth-century prisons to undermine the system that sought to control them.