Samuel Johnson

Walnut Street Prison

I hope you enjoyed your walk through the historic streets. You are now at the sight of the Walnut Street Prison, which operated from 1790 to 1838. This institution was not only the city prison but also the Commonwealth's penitentiary-the first in the country. Anyone sentenced to a year or more was sent here to serve out their sentence. As with institutions today, the prison was sex-segregated.

Due to the record-keeping in public institutions, researchers can find traces of transgendered people throughout the country's history. As early as 1799, for example, after being arrested for burglarizing in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Samuel Johnson was sentenced to three years in Walnut Street Prison. He was discovered to be a female 'who had accustomed herself to wear men's cloaths for several years.' Johnson's sex was discussed at trial and overall caused some confusion, indicating that he may, in fact, have been intersex.

Johnson was incarcerated with the women and was documented as Sarah at intake however, was allowed to continue dressing as a man. Despite the unusually long sentence, Johnson was discharged within a year. His presence there helps historians today better understand how gender was conceptualized hundreds of years ago.

View of Walnut Street Prison in 1800, drawn and engraved by W. Birch & Son.

Citations

LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History is a publication of the National Park Foundation, Chapter 10: Transgender History in the US and the Places that Matter by Susan Stryker.

Manion, Jennifer. Liberty's prisoners: Carceral culture in early America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.

Skiba, Bob. 'Philadelphia LGBT Mapping Project.' Google: My Maps, n.d. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1gyv3dfHs3MS82BHisv8oyZA77Ng&ll=39.94867667550744%2C-75.1492302684218&z=19.