Biography
Edward Hamilton was from Chicago, Illinois. Edward Hamilton was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to ten years in prison and fined $30,000. He served in the Cook County Jail and Leavenworth Penitentiary from September 1917 to December 25, 1921. At Leavenworth he was confined in segregation continuously, beginning on April 14, 1919, because he "broke dishes" and created disturbances in the dining room. The prison guards classified Hamilton as a "dangerous and irresponsible character." In a letter to the warden dated October 30, 1919, Hamilton reported that he and other IWW prisoners were "set upon with clubs, rocks and black-jacks" by guards and other prisoners assisting the guards.
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly prisoner roster, under the printed name HAMILTON , ED, reports: Federal . Indicted Chicago , Sept. 28 , 1917. Conspiracy to violate Sections 6 , 19 and 37 and Section 4 of Espionage Act . Convicted , 10 -year sentence . Bail , $ 10,000 . Leavenworth Federal prison . This is the contemporary labor organization’s account. Indictment, bail and imposed sentence are distinguished from physical admission, actual release and complete time served; no missing custody endpoint is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n03-mar-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=11
In Charles Plahn’s signed account, April 14, 1919 Leavenworth discipline placed named IWW prisoners in the black hole for six days on bread and water and reduced them to third grade. The account distinguishes return to the main prison yard from release from prison. It says Hamilton was denied requested medical care and punished in the hole for calling for help.
White describes eight days chained to cell bars after the April 1919 Leavenworth cafeteria incident, followed by two and a half years of solitary confinement despite advanced tuberculosis. He credits Caroline Lowe’s advocacy for release. White gives the day after Christmas 1921, conflicting with the existing Christmas Day endpoint; the discrepancy is retained without replacing the stored date.
Ahmed White, Under the Iron Heel (University of California Press, 2022), physical PDF pages [218] (printed page = physical minus 11); source193 SHA256 7c24fb0ba336fcbf379fb9720f70dcdbf754d796a50dee77b39e38e0f9bd2868.
