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Brooks, Henry M. (Henry Mason), 1822-1898

"The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts"


_Essex Register_, 1820.
-------------------------
IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.
The following scrap from a Boston paper of 1819 has reference to an
old method which creditors frequently resorted to in dealing with
troublesome, and no doubt oftentimes unfortunate, debtors.
_CHRISTMAS DAY._
On this most glorious "Day of Days" there are in gaol for debt,
in this town, the following persons, viz.:
1 Head of a Family for 9 94
1 -- do. -- -- 8 12-1/2
1 -- do. -- -- 14 00
1 -- do. -- -- 9 61
1 -- do. -- -- 11 68
1 -- do. -- -- 27 00
1 -- do. -- -- 7 75
1 -- do. for schooling } 11 25
his children, }
1 -- do. discharged 1 88!!!
-----
Who among the opulent is willing to restore a _Father_ to his
Family and Christmas Fire Side?
-------------------------
Sometimes debtors were not actually imprisoned, but were confined to
what was called the "limits of the jail;" that is, certain streets
within a specified distance of the jail.


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