It seems to have been quite common at one time to sell prisoners. At
the Supreme Judicial Court in Salem, in November, 1787, "Elizabeth
Leathe of Lynn, for harbouring thieves and receiving stolen goods, was
convicted and sentenced to be whipped twenty stripes and to be sold
for six months." Also at a session of the same Court, held in Boston
in September, 1791, six persons were convicted of theft and sentenced
to be whipped and pay costs, or to be sold for periods of from six
months to four years. At this same Court one Seth Johnson appears to
have received what seems to us a rather severe sentence, although of
course we do not know all the circumstances of the case. He was
convicted of theft on three indictments and was sentenced to be "whipt
65 stripes and confined to hard labor for nine years." The Court at
Salem, before referred to, passed on one Catharine Derby a very heavy
sentence for stealing from Captain Hathorne's shop. It was, "To sit
upon the gallows one hour with a rope about her neck, to be whipped 20
stripes, pay £14 to Capt. Hathorne, and costs of prosecution." This is
almost as bad as the old saying, "being hung and paying forty
shillings."

This practice of selling convicts was nothing more or less than making
slaves of them,--for a limited period, of course; but perhaps it was
in many instances a punishment more to be desired by the victims than
being confined in prison, especially if they were well treated. The
prisons in those days had not "modern conveniences," and probably in
some cases were hardly decent. The condition of the jail in Portsmouth,
N.H., in February, 1789, is thus described by a prisoner who made his
escape from there by digging through the chimney. His account is
interesting in this connection. The paper from which we take it says:
"But for fear his quitting his lodgings in so abrupt a manner might