Black Hole

Black Hole, an appellation familiarly given to a dungeon or dark cell in a prison, and associated in the public mind with a horrible catastrophe in the history of British India—viz. the cruel confinement of a party of English in the military prison of Fort William, since called the 'Black Hole of Calcutta,' on the night of 19th June 1756. The garrison of the fort connected with the English factory at Calcutta having been captured by Suraja Dowlah (Sirāj-ud-Daula), the nawab of Bengal, he caused the whole of the prisoners taken, 146 in number, to be confined in an apartment 18 feet square. This cell had only two small windows, and these were obstructed by a veranda. The crush of the unhappy sufferers was dreadful; and after a night of excruciating agony from pressure, heat, thirst, and want of air, there were in the morning only 23 survivors, the ghastliest forms ever seen on earth. One of them, Mr Holwell, published a narrative in 1758; see also Macaulay's essay on Clive.