He was
convicted of theft on three indictments and was sentenced to be "whipt
65 stripes and confined to hard labor for nine years." The Court at
Salem, before referred to, passed on one Catharine Derby a very heavy
sentence for stealing from Captain Hathorne's shop. It was, "To sit
upon the gallows one hour with a rope about her neck, to be whipped 20
stripes, pay L14 to Capt. Hathorne, and costs of prosecution." This is
almost as bad as the old saying, "being hung and paying forty
shillings."
This practice of selling convicts was nothing more or less than making
slaves of them,--for a limited period, of course; but perhaps it was
in many instances a punishment more to be desired by the victims than
being confined in prison, especially if they were well treated. The
prisons in those days had not "modern conveniences," and probably in
some cases were hardly decent. The condition of the jail in Portsmouth,
N.H., in February, 1789, is thus described by a prisoner who made his
escape from there by digging through the chimney.
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