Law and order 1822-1967 A cow, three sheep, a hog, a stove, and a cord of firewood were to be exempt from the goods that a creditor could seize from a debtor, under provisions of a bill before the Lower Canada House of Assembly. From debate in the Assembly, as reported in the Montreal Vindicator, […]
Category: Law and order
You could be hanged for stealing turnips
Law and order 1822-1967 In early nineteenth century Canada, you could be hanged for stealing turnips. If you fell into debt, you could be imprisoned for life—in possibly the world’s worst prisons, perhaps together with your wife and children. Women were not sentenced to debtors’ prison, but if they lived on poverty street without means […]
Peasants Don’t Doff Hats As Anarchy Foreseen In Doomed Democracy
Liberty, democracy and freedom from want, hunger and an oppressive aristocracy were said to prevail among peasants from Europe in the Upper Canada of 1821. That was just 16 years before the peasants mounted armed rebellions against the ruling aristocracies of the Family Compact in Upper Canada and the Chateau Clique in Lower Canada. […]