ABSTRACT
Niels Lind was not the only one to breathe a sigh of relief when the execution ceremony was over. The whole town had been in the grip of the court case with its dramatic court hearings, the large team of guards and the general fear of the prisoners escaping and their possible revenge. The court case provided the basis for the town council’s decision to move the nightman’s house away from St. Jorgensbjerg. The 23-year-old apprentice Peder Hemmingsen was to serve his life sentence on the naval dockyard. The Stokhus prisoners were known as slaves, and every day they went out in their chains and guarded by soldiers to carry out tasks around the city such as digging the city’s ramparts, sweeping the streets or operating bellows. Peder Hemmingsen served 24 years in all as a prisoner, working as a slave.
