Local History, Closer to Home
From the inventory of ‘sundrys’ on page 119 ( see 
A list of Sundrys in the Alms House, taken August 1756 (48.31 kB), draw a picture of what you think each of the following areas of the almshouse might look like ( Inventory and Census Worksheet)
‘In the Garret’
‘In the Meal Room’
‘In the Yard’
‘In the Grainery’
‘In the Kitchen’
‘In the Cellar’
Boston Overseers of the Poor Records, 1733-1925. 19 boxes. Massachusetts Historical Society.
Bridenbaugh, Carl. The Colonial Craftsman. New York City: New York University Press, 1950.
Carr, Jacqueline Barbara. “As Remarkable as the Revolution Itself.” The New England Quarterly 73, no. 4 (2000): 583-602.
Cook, Edward M. Jr.. The Fathers of the Towns. Leadership and Community Structure in Eighteenth-Century New England. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1976.
Herndon, Ruth Wallis. Unwelcome Americans: Living on the Margin in Early New England (Early American Studies). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
Herndon, Ruth W, and John E. Murray. Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009.
Huang, Nian-Sheng. Floating Poverty: The Poor in Eighteenth Century Massachusetts. Camarillo, Calif: N. Huang, 2012.
Jennifer, Turner. “Almshouse, workhouse, outdoor relief: Responses to the poor in southeastern Massachusetts, 1740-1800.” Historical Journal of Massachusetts 31 (2003). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3837/is_200307/ai_n9242995 (accessed June 2, 2008).
Jones, Douglas Lamar. “The Strolling Poor: Transiency in Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts.” Journal of Social History 8, no. 3 (1975): 28-54.
Katz, Michael B.. In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America. New York: Basic Books, 1986.
Kelso, Robert W.. History of Public Poor Relief in Massachusetts: 1620-1920 (Patterson Smith reprint series in criminology, law enforcement, and social problems. Publication no. 31). Montclair: Patterson Smith, 1969.
Lee, Charles R.. “Public Poor Relief and the Massachusetts Community, 1620-1715.” The New England Quarterly 55, no. 4 (1982): 564-585.
Levy, Barry. “Girls and Boys: Poor Children and the Labor Market in Colonial Massachusetts.” Pennsylvania Quarterly 64 (1997): 287-307.
Mayer, Holly A.. Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community During the American Revolution. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1999.
Meltsner, Heli. The Poorhouses of Massachusetts: A Cultural and Architectural History. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2012.
Murray, John E., and Ruth Wallis Herndon. “Markets For Children In Early America: A Political Economy Of Pauper Apprenticeship.” The Journal of Economic History 62.02 (2002): n. pag.
Parkhurst, Eleanor. “Poor Relief in a Massachusetts Village in the Eighteenth Century.” Social Service Review 11.3 (1937): 446-64.
Towner, Lawrence W.. “The Indentures of Boston’s Poor Apprentices, 1734-1805.” Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts 43 (1963): 417-468.
Trattner, Walter I.. From Poor Law to Welfare State: A History of Social Welfare in America. New York City: Free Press, 1994.
The Eighteenth-Century Records of the Boston Overseers of the Poor (Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts). Edited by Eric Nellis and Anne Decker Cecere. Charlottesville: University Of Virginia Press, 2001.
The Beverly Overseers of the Poor reported in the 1822 Quincy Report (10.81 MB) on the consideration of the pauper laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that in Beverly:
Intemperance is the most fruitful source of pauperism: more than half the adult persons … have been addicted to the excessive use of ardent spirits. As an amendment to the existing laws upon this subject it is suggested that drunkenness be made punishable either by fine and imprisonment, by a summary process before a Justice of the Peace or by commitment to the Workhouse by the Overseers of the Poor; that the use of ardent spirits in Workhouses, or by Paupers, who are supported or relieved by their towns, should be prohibited; that retailers of spirituous liquors by prohibited, under a penalty to be recovered in a summary way, from selling any spirituous liquors to any person who is supported or relieved by any town as a pauper; that Overseers of the Poor by prohibited from affording any relief to any person as a pauper, who is habitually intemperate in the use of ardent spirits, unless such person by confined in some Workhouse or House of Correction; that the number or retailers of spirituous liquors should be restricted in a certain proportion to the number of inhabitants in each town, and that the duty on licenses to retailers by increased.
Questions
1. What is the purpose of a Temperance Society?
2. When was the Massachusetts Temperance Society founded?
3. List four of its founders:
a.)
b.)
c.)
d.)
4. What is the definition of ‘spirituous liquors’?
5. Were all alcoholic beverages considered spirituous liquors?
6. What were the regulations concerning alcoholic beverages in the Boston and Beverly Almshouse and/or Workhouse(s)?
7. What were the regulations concerning alcoholic beverages in your hometown’s Almshouse and/or Workhouse?
8. Explain 2 ways in which the Beverly Overseers suggestion to increase the duty on licenses to retailers of liquor would help prevent intemperance:
a.)
b.)
