Fort William was established to protect the East India Company’s trade in the city of Calcutta, the principal city of the Bengal Presidency. Fort William fell to the siege of Bengali forces on June 20, 1756. The surviving defenders who were captured and made prisoners of war numbered between 64 and 69. Modern historians believe that 64 prisoners were sent into the Hole, and that 43 died there.
About Black Hole of Calcutta in brief
Fort William was established to protect the East India Company’s trade in the city of Calcutta, the principal city of the Bengal Presidency. Fort William fell to the siege of Bengali forces on June 20, 1756. The surviving defenders who were captured and made prisoners of war numbered between 64 and 69, along with an unknown number of Anglo-Indian soldiers and civilians. The English officers and merchants based in Kolkata were rounded up by the forces loyal to Siraj ud-Daulah and forced into a dungeon known as the “Black Hole” Modern historians believe that 64 prisoners were sent into the Hole, and that 43 died there. D. L. Prior reported that 43 men of the Fort-William garrison were either missing or dead, for reasons other than suffocation and shock. The dungeon was a strongly barred room not intended for the confinement of more than two or three men at a time. There were only two windows, only a projecting veranda outside, and thick iron bars within. The prisoners were packed so tightly that the door was difficult to close. One of the soldiers stationed in the veranda was offered 1,000 rupees to have them removed to a larger room, but he returned saying it was impossible. The second attempt was made with a second attempt, and a third time with a fourth bribe, before the room was opened. The next morning, when the black hole was opened, at 6.
00 a. m., only about 23 of the prisoners remained alive. Historians offer different numbers of prisoners and casualties of war; Stanley Wolpert reported that 64 people were imprisoned and 21 survived. Busteed reports that the many non-combatants present in the fort when it was captured makes infeasible a precise number of people killed. “It was the result of revenge and resentment, in the breasts of the lower Jemmaatdaars, to whose custody we were delivered, for the number of their order killed during the siege. ”Concurring with Holwell, Wolpert said that Siraj-ud-daulah did not order the dungeon and was not not responsible for it. Holwell wrote about the events that occurred after the fall of Fort William, “On the word of a soldier; that no harm should come to us”. The physical description of the Black Hole of Cal cutta corresponds to Holwell’s point of view with the description of a strong barred room that was not intended to be used by more than 2 or 3 men at one time. He went away, but then returned, saying he was offered a second bribe, and made a third attempt, with a result; he was then offered a third bribe and a fourth, and so on. He met with the Nawab of Bengal, who assured him: “No harm should be done to us.” Holwell was a senior bureaucrat of the East Indies Company, who had been a military surgeon in earlier life.
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