Thomas Eddy was born on September 5, 1758, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of James and Mary (Darragh) Eddy of Ireland, who had been Presbyterians in early life, but had joined the Society of Friends before removing to Philadelphia.
After experiencing business reverses in various localities Eddy settled in New York City and became successful as an insurance broker. He was also successful as an insurance underwriter, and was soon free to devote himself largely to philanthropic activities. He became imbued with the progressive ideas of Beccaria, Montesquieu, William Penn, and John Howard.
In 1796 Eddy and General Philip John Schuyler journeyed to Philadelphia and examined carefully the penitentiary there (the Walnut Street jail), which then embodied advanced ideas. Eddy and his friends persuaded the New York legislature to authorize two similar penitentiaries in New York. Only one was built at the time, the so-called "Newgate Prison, " in Greenwich Village. Thomas Eddy helped superintend the building operations and then acted for several years as inspector and agent of the penitentiary. This prison had no single cells, however, and Eddy soon became convinced that the single-cell system, especially for hardened criminals, was desirable. It had been tried in a small way in England, and in Philadelphia, and Thomas Eddy, by his ardent advocacy of it, aided in its further extension. For more than twenty-five years he devoted himself unsparingly to the reform of prisons and of the penal code in New York.
His Account of the State Prison or Penitentiary House in the City of New York (1801) is an important document in the history of prison reform. His last great service in this field was to defend and justify the main features of his penitentiary system in 1825 when it was being sharply criticized because of lax administration. Eddy was apparently interested in or actively associated with most of the progressive movements of his day. He helped DeWitt Clinton initiate and carry through the project of the Erie Canal, and was active in the New York Corresponding Association for the Promotion of Internal Improvement.
He was an active supporter of the New York Hospital and helped to found the Bloom ingdale Asylum for the Insane, and wrote Hints for Introducing an Improved Method of Treating the Insane in the Asylum, published in 1815.
He opposed imprisonment for debt. He was an anti-slavery advocate, and he served on Quaker committees to visit and aid the American Indians. Yet prison reform was his great life-work, and because of his labors in that movement he was sometimes called by his contemporaries, "The John Howard of America. "
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Eddy Thomas was an anti-slavery advocate, and he served on Quaker committees to visit and aid the American Indians.
Eddy Thomas helped found the House of Refuge, the New York Savings Bank, and the New York Bible Society.
Eddy Thomas was largely involved in philanthropic activities and was a dedicated humanitarian.
On March 20, 1782, Eddy Thomas married Hannah Hartshorne.
