The records of the Tennessee State Penitentiary can be viewed in two ways. A casual approach reveals a body of historical records of fascinating and valuable detail. But on closer reflection, the misery and evil reflected in the records will send a chill down the spine of the imaginative reader. Most people shrink from thinking much about prisons. But the process of dealing with crime and criminals in 19th-century Tennessee resulted in the creation of a huge body of records. They range from the minutes and case files of the local courts to the records of gubernatorial pardons. For both the historian and the genealogist, these records are well worth investigating. The purpose of this book is to provide both historical and genealogical information based on the earliest records of the Tennessee State Penitentiary. The impetus for the work came from the discovery of several ledgers maintained by the Keeper of the Penitentiary, who kept a careful record of each prisoner. These records,...