Night of Terror

The Night of Terror refers to November 14, 1917 when several women were arrested for protesting in front of the White House for women's rights.[womenshistory.about.com/od/suffrage1900/a/suffrage_br] This event is most known for the brutal torture of women in the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. The 300 plus activists involved were fighting against President Woodrow Wilson for the right to vote. Thirty-three women were thrown in jail and these women were the ones who experienced the night of terror. Lucy Burns, one of the founders of the National Woman's Party was chained to her cell with her arms in the air.  The women declared a hunger strike and in response, they were force-fed by being held down on a chair and having a long tube shoved down their throats. The jailers attached a funnel to the tube, and poured in mushed up raw eggs and milk for protein until they threw up. During the Night of Terror, Burns was beaten for calling out to other inmates, and her arms handcuffed above her head in her cell. Police officers hurled Dora Lewis into her cell, smashing her head against an iron bar. Her cellmate Alice Cosu thought she was dead, and suffered a heart attack. One woman was stabbed between the eyes with the broken staff of her banner at the Workhouse.

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Category:1917 in the United States
Category:Feminism
Category:November events
Category:1917 events
Category:1910s protests