Moses Harman

Released
Date of birth:12. 10. 1830
Date of death:30. 01. 1910
Age:79† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1900s
State:Illinois
Time Imprisoned:
2 Years 7 Months 28 Days
Support
Anarchism
Moses Harman

Biography

Moses Harman was a free-thought and individualist-anarchist editor who published Lucifer, the Light-Bearer, a paper devoted to free speech, women's emancipation, and sexual freedom. He was prosecuted repeatedly under the Comstock obscenity laws for what he printed about marriage and the body. In 1905, at the age of seventy-five, he was sentenced to a year of hard labor breaking rocks at the Joliet penitentiary in Illinois.

Cases

Kansas State Penitentiary
Charges: Sending "obscene" material through the mails (Comstock Act).
Sentenced: Apr 30, 1890
Incarcerated: May 4, 1890
Released: Aug 30, 1890
Sentence: Five years and a $300 fine. Committed to the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing on May 4, 1890 and released on a writ of error on August 30, 1890. Verdict as recorded: Yes — the jury returned a guilty verdict on four counts on April 18, 1890; sentenced April 30, 1890 to five years and a $300 fine. Charges as recorded: Sending "obscene" material through the mails (Comstock Act) — for articles in Lucifer, the Light-Bearer on marriage, the body, and sexual freedom.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Kansas
Kansas State Penitentiary
Charges: Sending "obscene" material through the mails (Comstock Act).
Sentenced: January 1891
Incarcerated: June 1892
Released: February 1893
Sentence: One year at the Kansas State Penitentiary (Lansing). After his appeals were exhausted he was taken to Lansing in late June 1892; released in February 1893. Verdict as recorded: Yes — convicted on three counts in the O'Neil-letter prosecution and sentenced in January 1891 to one year at Lansing. Charges as recorded: Sending "obscene" material through the mails (Comstock Act) — for articles in Lucifer, the Light-Bearer on marriage, the body, and sexual freedom.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Kansas
United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
Charges: Sending "obscene" material through the mails (Comstock Act).
Sentenced: Jun 2, 1895
Incarcerated: Jun 2, 1895
Released: Apr 4, 1896
Sentence: Resentenced June 2, 1895 to one year and one day at hard labor. Committed at the Kansas State Penitentiary (Lansing) and later transferred to the U.S. penitentiary at Leavenworth; released April 4, 1896. Charges as recorded: Sending "obscene" material through the mails (Comstock Act) — for articles in Lucifer, the Light-Bearer on marriage, the body, and sexual freedom.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Kansas
United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
Charges: Sending "obscene" material through the mails (Comstock Act).
Sentenced: 1905
Incarcerated: Feb 26, 1906
Released: Dec 26, 1906
Sentence: One year at hard labor. Taken to the Cook County Jail on February 26, 1906, transferred to the Joliet penitentiary, and then to the U.S. penitentiary at Leavenworth on June 28, 1906; released December 26, 1906 after serving about ten months. Verdict as recorded: Yes — convicted in Chicago at the age of seventy-five and sentenced in 1905 to a year of hard labor. Charges as recorded: Sending "obscene" material through the mails (Comstock Act) — for articles in Lucifer, the Light-Bearer on marriage, the body, and sexual freedom.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Kansas
United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
Charges: Obscenity under the Comstock laws
Incarcerated: Mar 1, 1906
Released: Dec 26, 1906
Sentence: He entered Joliet on March 1, 1906, was transferred to Leavenworth on June 28, 1906, and was released on December 26, 1906 after serving ten months and three days.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Kansas

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