Ann Pratt (born c. 1830) was a mixed-race

mulatto ( , ) is a Race (human categorization), racial classification that refers to people of mixed Sub-Saharan African, African and Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry only. When speaking or writing about a singular woman in English, the ...

woman from

Hanover Parish Hanover () is a parish located on the northwestern tip of the island of Jamaica. It is a part of the county of Cornwall, bordered by St. James in the east and Westmoreland in the south. With the exception of Kingston, it is the smallest par ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

, recognised for her pan-

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

influencing pamphlet called ''Seven Months in the Kingston Lunatic Asylum and what I Saw There'', August 21, 1860. The pamphlet told her firsthand accounts and observations of torture, beatings, near-drownings and persistent mistreatment towards the female patients in Jamaica's

Kingston Lunatic Asylum Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

, during her own time there as a patient.

Life and work

Ann was born in 1830 in Hanover Parish, Jamaica, to mixed parentage. In Pratt's pamphlet, she detailed having two children before her admittance. She also details her experience being raped in 1859, for which she was tried in court, and during the process, she experienced a mental breakdown. Having originally been sent to a female prison, she was then transferred to Kingston Asylum after she was declared psychologically unfit.

Pratt's Pamphlet

After her release from the Asylum, Pratt published a small pamphlet called ''Seven Months in the Kingston Lunatic Asylum and what I Saw There'', August 21, 1860. In the pamphlet's preface, Ann states "My object in coming before the public with the following facts sto make known to all, whom it concerns, the actual treatment of the unfortunate people that came within the walls of Kingston Lunatic Asylum." In the pages of Ann's influential pamphlet, she details briefly her early life leading up to her admittance to Kingston Lunatic Asylum. According to Jones: "In her pamphlet Ann Pratt graphically described the worst of these 'acts of cruelty and ill-usage' – the practice of tanking – after Judith Ryan, the matron of the lunatic asylum, had ordered that

ratt Ratt (stylized as RATT) was an American glam metal band that had significant commercial success in the 1980s, with their albums having been certified as gold, platinum and multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA. ...

be tanked ... forcibly holding patients under water." Pratt said that during daily baths, she was tanked multiple times in quick succession. When a fellow inmate died from the procedure, the matron and her two assistants were charged with manslaughter, but they were acquitted by a jury. In spite of the acquittal, news of the practice became a public scandal. According to Jones, a government enquiry in 1861 found that Pratt's "accusations were largely true."

Asylum's rebuttal pamphlet

With the publication of Pratt's influential pamphlet, the Public Hospital and Lunatic Asylum of Jamaica printed its own 55-page pamphlet called "Official documents on the case of Ann Pratt, the Reputed Authoress of a Certain Pamphlet." It details Pratt's allegations as well as testimony given by other patients and workers at the Asylum.

Results of Pratt's pamphlet

Following the publication of Pratt's account, there were immediate staff reforms within Kingston's Lunatic Asylums; including the dismissals of the alleged key perpetrators of the abuse and the start of a local inquiry, in 1861, into colonial asylum governance across Kingston. Subsequently, the pamphlet has been identified as crucial in creating greater awareness of said poor practices across many British colonies at the time and leading to a subsequent investigation across the British Empire's entire colonial asylum system.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Ann 1830s births Date of death missing 19th-century Jamaican writers People from Hanover Parish Jamaican women writers Jamaican writers 19th-century Jamaican people Mental health activists