Randalls Island is located immediately adjacent to the island of Manhattan and is located at the juncture of the East River and the Harlem River. The 273 acre island was privately owned until 1830, at which time it was sold to the city. It was then used as a potter’s field (burial ground for poor people), an almshouse (charity-run housing for poor people), a smallpox quarantine station, a reformatory called the House of Refuge, the Idiots’ and Children’s Hospital, and the Inebriate Asylum.[1] The almshouse had just recently been moved there from Bellevue in 1844, after public anxiety had increased regarding the growing amount of poor people on government welfare. A nursery of sorts was also established on the island during this year, where adults and children were taught how to properly labor, as pauperism was seen as an individual fault rather than a societal ill at this time.[2]

                In the diary, Randalls Island is referenced on page 150 of the second volume, when recently released prisoner Bridget Riley is granted permission to go there with her fourteen-year-old son after she was denied access to The Home. From the information available, we can assume that Bridget Riley went to Randalls Island to live in the almshouse.

[1] Kenneth T. Jackson, Lisa Keller, and Nancy V. Flood, eds., "R," in The Encyclopedia of New York City, 2nd ed. (New London, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 1084, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vm1cb.23.

[2] Edward K. Spann, "Chapter 4: Poverty," in The New Metropolis: New York City, 1840-1857 (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1983), 77-79.