Flynn’s Weekly. Vol. 22, No. 3, March 5, 1927

The Black Hole of Calcutta

Although this horror is well known to Macaulay’s “schoolboy” public, yet the details may not be familiar to all readers.

The following notes are derived from the study of “Lord Clive” by Alexander John Arbuthnot.

Calcutta was captured by the Nawab of Bengal. Aliverdi Khan, a just and strong ruler, died in 1756, and was succeeded by his grandson, Surajud Daulah, under twenty years of age, whose training had been of the worst description. This youth hated the English and had not been two months on the throne when he noted that in anticipation of difficulties with the French, they were strengthening Fort William.

He seized the English factory at Kasim-bazar and attacked Calcutta. Women and children of the fort were removed aboard ship. The governor, Drake, and the military commandant, Captain Minchin, deserted their posts, and to their lasting disgrace likewise took to the ships. Holwell, member of the council, assumed command of the fort, which was captured.

All the Englishmen in the fort, one hundred and forty-six persons, were thrust at the point of the sword into a small room, the prison of the garrison, commonly known as the Black Hole, only twenty feet square. The Nawab promised to spare their lives, but went to sleep after a debauch. On getting over it, he allowed the door of the Black Hole to be opened. By that time, one hundred and twenty-three out of the one hundred and forty-six prisoners had miserably perished.

The survivors, among them the acting governor Holwell, were brought before the tyrant, insulted and reproached by him, and detained in custody in wretched sheds, and fed upon grain and water. An Englishwoman, one of the survivors, was placed in the Nawab’s harem.