Constance Lytton

Reproduction of the original: Prisons & Prisoners by Constance Lytton

Reproduction of the original: Prisons & Prisoners by Constance Lytton

Originally published in 1914. EXCERPT FROM Prisons & Prisoners: Some Personal Experiences DEDICATION TO PRISONERS WHEN, for a short while, I shared your lot, I asked myself through all my waking hours if there were any friendly thought which could act beneficently for all prisoners, no matter how various the training of their previous lives, no matter whether distress of circumstance, drunkenness, selfish action, cruelty, or madness had been the cause which brought them into prison. And there seemed this one thing. It is a single idea, but needs many words to give it shape. Lay hold of your inward self and keep tight hold. Reverence yourself. Be just, kind and forgiving to yourself. For the inner you of yourself is surely the only means of communication for you with any good influence you may once have enjoyed or hope some day to find, the only window through which you can look upon a happier and more lovable life, the only door through which some day you will be able to escape, unbarring it to your own release from all that is helpless, selfish, and unkind in your present self. Public opinion, which sent you to prison, and your gaolers, who have to keep you there, are mostly concerned with your failings. Every hour of prison existence will remind you of these afresh. Unless you are able to keep alight within yourself the remembrance of acts and thoughts which were good, a belief in your own power to exist freely when you are once more out of prison, how can any other human being help you? If not the inward power, how can any external power avail? But if you have this comforter within you, hourly keeping up communication with all that you have known and loved of good in your life, with all the possibilities for good that you know of-in your hands, your mind, your heart-then when you are released from prison, however lonely you may be, or poor, or despised by your neighbours, you will have a friend who can really help you. There will be people who visit you in prison, and who watch over you at first when you come out. They will try to help you, but unless they truly understand your lot, understanding your goodness as well as your badness, and sympathising with your badness as well as with your goodness, they will seem far off from you. Who knows, though, but what you may help them? In my ignorance and impudence I went into prison hoping to help prisoners. So far as I know, I was unable to do anything for them. But the prisoners helped me. They seemed at times the direct channels between me and God Himself, imbued with the most friendly and powerful goodness that I have ever met. Prisoners, I wish I could give to you, for your joy, something of the help you gave to me, and that in many ways I could follow your example.

First published in 1925, this selection of letters throws light upon the life and character of Constance Lytton (1869–1923), a brave and influential figure in the movement for women's suffrage. From an aristocratic background, she became a member of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1909, calling on the support of her many contacts. Among her achievements was the first-hand exposure of the poor treatment and force-feeding of working-class women on hunger strike in prison: she deliberately had herself arrested and imprisoned in disguise and under an alias. Compiled by her sister, Betty Balfour (1867–1942), these letters cover her adult life, mainly comprising correspondence from Lytton to close family members, interspersed with illustrations of her and her family. Despite omissions - particularly details relating to her personal relationships - this collection remains an important tribute to her life and to the history of suffrage and prison reform.

Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton (1869–1923), granddaughter of writer Edward Bulwer Lytton, became a passionate and militant suffragette after visiting imprisoned activists in 1905. She was arrested twice in 1909, on one occasion for throwing stones at a ministerial car, but was soon released. In 1910, to test whether the treatment of women prisoners differed depending on their class, she created a working-class alter ego, Jane Warton, for a protest in Liverpool. Under that name she was imprisoned and participated in a hunger strike that led to her being force-fed eight times, permanently damaging her health. This account of her experiences, first published in 1914, is a moving insight into the experiences of women who risked their lives and endured great suffering to secure the right to vote. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=lyttco

Prisons and Prisoners is the autobiography of aristocratic suffragette Constance Lytton. In it, she details her militant actions in the struggle to gain the vote for women, including her masquerade and imprisonment as the working-class "Jane Warton." As a member of a well-known political family (and grand-daughter of the famous novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton), Lytton's arrests garnered much attention at the time, but she was treated differently than other suffragettes because of her class—when other suffragettes were forcibly fed while on hunger strikes, she was released. "Jane Warton," however, was forcibly fed, an act that permanently damaged Lytton's health, but that also became a singular moment in the history of women's and prisoner's rights. This Broadview edition includes news articles, reviews, and illustrations on women's suffrage from the periodicals of the time.