Blackburn Penitentiary (Timeline)

ARRIVAL IN THE EAST

Saturday, February 24, 1849

After a 5-week-and-4-day-long voyage via steamship, roughly 300 immigrants from Fujian Province, China, arrived on the United States' East Coast. The year preceding, those from the neighboring province of Guangdong had arrived on the United States' West Coast. More specifically, 325 Chinese immigrants had moved into California after news reached Hong Kong that gold had been found there earlier that year, on January 24, kicking off the Gold Rush Era. Predicting that mass immigration in the west would occur over the next seven years, those from Fujian had decided to settle in the east, hoping for more opportunity there.

Upon arrival in the unestablished New England territory, things were not quite what they had expected. A vast emerald-colored field surrounded them, the only visible landmark on the otherwise flat surface being a range of sharp, jagged mountains in the faraway distance, dubbed "The Shadow Mountains" by land surveyors in 1779. Massachusetts' government took notice of the new arrivals and decided to contract them to work on a construction site for the state's new prison. Plans had been in the making for months due to overcrowding and security issues in its other prisons (primarily in incorporated areas of western Essex County (Andover, Haverhill, Methuen)). The site's location was chosen for its separateness from the rest of civilization, distancing the state's criminal population from the residencies of law-abiding citizens.

CONSTRUCTION BEGINS

Monday, February 26, 1849

Since the location was so remote, it was more practical for the laborers to live on the site instead of in a tenement miles away. Roughly 100 tents were set up within a 0.37-mile/1,953.6-foot radius of the site, each one spacious enough for three people. The workers and their families would be stuck here for most of their lives, surrounded only by a distant, seemingly endless forest. Needing foremen to oversee construction, the government selected 4 of the workers (one for each of the prison's buildings).

One of the 300 laborers on the site was mentally disturbed Shou-Tian Zhang (aged 18), referred to by others as "Li'l Woodenhead." Zhang, like many of the other workers, had come in from the Fujian city of Zhangzhou. However, his arrival was seemingly unaccompanied by any family members, and, due to his intellectual disability, any attempt at getting information from him regarding his background or past was unsuccessful. For the next several years, Zhang's lacking comprehension would be taken advantage of by others on the site.

CHARACTER PROFILE: SHOU-TIAN ZHANG

Legal Name: Shou-Tian Zhang

Other Names: Zhang Shou-Tian (Birth Name), Li'l Woodenhead (Nickname)

Date of Birth: Sunday, May 23, 1830

Birthplace: Zhangzhou, Fujian, China

Ethnicity/Race: Chinese/East Asian

Gender: Male

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Height: 5'7"

Weight: 136 lbs.

1849-1859:

Over a decade, the number of construction workers increased from roughly 300 to 400; most of them were inheritors of their parents' posts, their fates as laborers on the site essentially sealed from birth. Throughout this time, the stonework was laid for the prison's administrative building and its three penitentiary houses, labeled Buildings A, B, and C.

The workers also took some notes from their friends in the west and switched from using simple manual tools (shovels, pickaxes, saws) to black powder explosives. Unlike Dynamite, which would not come around until 1867, black powder was less convenient, as it did not come pre-packed in "sticks." Black powder had to be funneled manually into paper and then stuck with a fuse (usually a quill or feather). To detonate several of them at once, one had to tie all the fuses together into a common fuse, light it with a match, shout, "Fire in the hole!" and run. Accidents were commonplace due to the powder's instability, and as such, progress got delayed multiple times. Most of the miners who died were not casualties of an explosion, but rather victims of smoke inhalation. Not all those who inhaled the smoke died, though; some instead started showing bizarre symptoms of an unknown illness. These symptoms included: aphasia, confusion, delirium, and disorganized thoughts and speech. Some other workers on the site informally called it "The Ebonic Plague" (a play on "The Bubonic Plague"), due to the very dark gray, almost pure black, head-to-toe staining (caused by soot exposure) being similar in color to ebony, the tropical hardwood.

THE DAY OF THE DISASTER

Thursday, September 22, 1859

Unfortunately, the diagnosing of mental illnesses had yet to become common practice, so Shou-Tian Zhang's condition was, and continued to be, left untreated and dismissed by his fellow workers as general stupidity. For entertainment, they would dare him to do bizarre things, like get his head stuck through a wooden shudder, and purposely word instructions ambiguously, knowing he would misinterpret them. On this day, approximately one-quarter of the crew members would have their last laugh.

An access tunnel was being built underground to connect all four of the prison's buildings. Zhang (now aged 29) and roughly 100 others were at the far-left building: Building A. The workers were taking their break in the 9-foot-deep trench they had been digging; explosives filled with black powder and nitroglycerin were already in place for when they resumed working. Down there, one of the crew members made a joke at Zhang's expense, saying that if he were exposed to the fumes, it would not affect him since he was already addle-brained. Seeing his target's unamused reaction, he then nudged Zhang and told him to "lighten up." Poor choice of words. Zhang nodded in response, interpreting the heckler's advice as an instruction. He walked over, grabbed a match, and prematurely lit the wick; none of the workers even had a chance to jump out in time. When they noticed the fuse had been ignited, everyone rushed toward the ladders at once, trampling over each other and injuring themselves in the process. Each ladder's steps eventually gave in under the weight of those fighting to climb them, leaving some trying to scratch their way up the 9-foot-deep dirt walls with their fingers. Others who started to accept their fate, but still wanted to minimize the damage as much as possible, started hurling entire crates of explosives out of the pit, hoping they would land far away enough to keep the fire from spreading. However, this was to no avail, as the crates spilled on their way up, showers of black powder pouring right back onto the miners. Zhang just stood still, unsure of what he had done to provoke such a response from everyone around him; he had only followed instructions.

A massive explosion boomed throughout the site for all to hear, followed by a mass of darkness emerging from the crater that was once a basement, not a hue of orange in sight to indicate fire had preceded the smoke. The giant black cloud lingered around the area, and it took an entire day to clear up.

THE DAY AFTER THE DISASTER:

Friday, September 23, 1859

The smoke finally cleared, and those on the site were able to see the ruins of Building A. Everything around the source of the explosion was completely charred and singed to a crisp. Most of the bodies were completely disintegrated, their silhouettes permanently etched into the ground. The casualties that were visible were described by witnesses as being "burned as black as ebony!"

Due to this major setback and some other complications in the years following, it would take another decade to finish the prison's construction.