Colonial Law in America

Forty lashes for committing adultery? Children taken from their parents for being unruly? Loss of an ear - or even your life — for stealing? These were the harsh punishments doled out for such crimes in Colonial America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Learn what happened to horse thieves and Sabbath breakers or people engaging in idleness in the thirteen original colonies. Accompanied by 30 postcard images, more than twenty-five "crimes" are covered in this view of law and justice in the 1600s and 1700s. It'll make you appreciate that you live in the twenty-first century.