behavior was unusual for a girl of the time. Elizabeth wore colorful dresses and looked for excuses so she wouldn’t have to attend church.

However, that changed in 1798 when an American preacher, William Savery, came to Norwich. His preaching touched young Elizabeth, and later she wrote in her diary, “Today I have felt there is a God.” Her dress became more subdued and she began a Sunday school for children of factory workers left alone while their parents worked. She also became an exhorter in her church.

After marriage to Joseph Fry in 1799, and later the responsibility of raising their 11 children, Elizabeth continued to find time to help the destitute.

Then hard times struck the Fry family. Elizabeth’s outreach to the needy was curtailed when her five-year-old daughterbecame sick and eventually died. At the same time, her husband experienced financial losses. But again in 1817, her brother-in-law prodded her to visit the women’s prison. Elizabeth’s friends warned her, “It’s too dangerous.” Even prison officials discouraged the visit, saying the prisoners were “savage.” Nevertheless, Elizabeth went to Newgate, and what she observed that day shocked her. Three hundred lice-ridden women and their children crowded into four small rooms. They slept on dirty straw. Prisoners received one small loaf of bread a day. Fights and riots were common, and bullies ruled the women with cruel treatment.

With no medical care, the prisoners became sick and died from typhus and other diseases. Babies were left to die when their mothers were hanged or shipped to Australia.

Upon entering the prison