Here’s an interesting fact from the Civil War period about Abraham Lincoln’s reaction to a ship’s sweat box.
Slaves were not the only people who benefited from Lincoln’s compassion. Sailors did too.
Prior to Lincoln’s presidency, many sailors endured the “Sweat Box” as a punishment on board ships. Then one day, Lincoln took an excursion on the steamer, Hartford. When he noticed a small door bound in iron, he asked his guide the room’s purpose. The seaman explained that it was a means of punishment for unruly men. Lincoln decided he wanted to try it. The three foot by three-foot room had little ventilation and the hot and humid air was suffocating. Lincoln lasted three minutes.
As a result, Lincoln ordered the sweat box banned from all ships flying an American flag. Hearing that the sweat box had been abolished in the United States, many European countries, including Great Britian and France, also abolished the practice.
The above information was found in the following source:
Nofi, Albert. The Blue and Gray Almanac. Philadelphia and Oxford: Casemate Publishers, 2017, p. 202.