Night of Terror as 33 Suffragists Brutalized at Occoquan Workhouse by Prison Guards

On November 14, 1917, 33 suffragist prisoners at Occoquan Workhouse in Fairfax County, Virginia, endured a night of systematic torture and abuse that became known as the “Night of Terror.” On orders from prison warden W. H. Whittaker, workhouse guards brutalized the women in what appeared to be a coordinated campaign to break their spirits and end the Silent Sentinels’ White House picketing through terror. Guards handcuffed Lucy Burns in her cell with her hands over her head, forcing her to stand all night in excruciating pain. Dora Lewis was violently thrown down, hitting her head on an iron bed. Alice Cosu, who witnessed Lewis’s assault, suffered a heart attack and was denied medical treatment until the following day. The violence continued throughout the night as guards attacked women who had committed no crime beyond holding signs asking for the right to vote. In the aftermath, Whittaker denied the prisoners access to counsel and summoned U.S. Marines to guard the workhouse, transforming it into a military detention facility for women demanding democratic rights.

The Night of Terror represented the culmination of escalating brutality against suffragist prisoners who had begun hunger strikes demanding recognition as political prisoners rather than common criminals. At least six suffragists—including Alice Paul, Rose Winslow, Lucy Burns, Dora Lewis, Kate Heffelfinger, and Elizabeth McShane—were subjected to forced feeding, a brutal procedure where guards held them down and shoved tubes up their noses or down their throats, pumping raw eggs into their bodies. Alice Paul, imprisoned on October 22, had begun her hunger strike on November 5 and was force-fed three times daily starting November 8. After days of this torture, Paul was transferred to the District Jail’s psychiatric ward in an apparent attempt to discredit her sanity, a common tactic used to undermine women who challenged male authority. The forced feeding constituted torture under any reasonable definition, causing extreme physical pain and psychological trauma designed to punish women for asserting their right to political participation.

The Night of Terror backfired spectacularly on the Wilson administration when news media brought stories of state brutality against women to the public, generating widespread sympathy for the suffragists. The electorate began turning against the administration’s repressive tactics, and all suffragist prisoners were released by November 28. The following January, President Wilson announced his support for women’s suffrage, reversing years of opposition under pressure from the public outrage generated by the treatment of suffragist prisoners. The Night of Terror exposed how far institutional power structures would go to suppress democratic movements, deploying the full violence of the carceral state against peaceful protesters. The episode demonstrated that those holding power would resort to torture to maintain their monopoly on political participation, while also revealing the limits of such repression. The suffragists’ willingness to endure brutal treatment rather than abandon their demands, combined with public revulsion at the state violence, ultimately advanced their cause. The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, less than three years after the Night of Terror, proving that institutional brutality could not permanently suppress movements for democratic expansion.