The Eighteenth Century Records of the Boston Overseers of the Poor: Volume 69

ISBN-13: 9780962073748 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 991 str.

Eric Nellis; Anne Decker Cecere

Opis

The Eighteenth-Century Records of the Boston Overseers of the Poor constitutes the collection of the earliest and most complete set of records pertaining to poor relief in early America. In a substantial introduction, the editor Eric Nellis describes the process by which the Overseers of the Poor, a board made up of generally wealthy merchants elected by the town meeting, attempted to distinguish between the -deserving- poor, eligible for -outdoor- relief in their homes, and the -undeserving- poor, who were remanded to the rigors of the workhouse. Because each Overseer knew personally the recipients of public charity, researchers will find here a wealth of detail about the nature of poverty and welfare in eighteenth-century America. This selection of records includes admissions records from 1758 to 1800, births and deaths from 1756 to 1771, a census and inventory of the almshouse, as well as fragmentary financial records from the period.