Social Control & Individual Liberties

From the early 17th Century through the Revolutionary War secure homes and safe streets were the rule throughout the colonies, particularly in New England where the Puritans were running things. Violence was rare among townspeople, and penalties, in retrospect, seem punitive enough to placate today's tough-on-crime crowd. Miscreants were regularly whipped and pilloried, occasionally branded with a hot iron and sometimes tagged with a symbol of their transgression.

The punishments were usually public, and incorrigibles could be hanged, the era's version of three-strikes-and-you're-out. Also for anyone lukewarm about paying taxes, this was law-and-order on the cheap, a criminal justice system largely composed of part-time, unpaid amateurs and almost totally devoid of lawyers. Most judges, who dominated proceedings, were laymen; even prosecutors, late arrivals to the colonial court, were not on the public payroll; and there were no prisons or police departments, neither of which was invented until the 19th Century.

The prevailing values of that time, however, should be considered before anyone starts longing for the ôold days.ö Unmarried sex, for example, was unlawful and subject to stern official retribution; as were adultery, skipping church, skepticism about God, a

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Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page)

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