Document Type
Article
Department or Administrative Unit
History
Publication Date
Spring 1999
Abstract
This essay examines three questions, in each case using the colony and state of Maryland as a case study. First, why did some states adopt the penitentiary so much earlier than others? Pennsylvania opened one in 1790, but South Carolina waited until 1868 to do so. Given the variations in timing, did different states establish penitentiaries for different reasons? That seems to have been the case, as a comparison of Maryland's path to the penitentiary with that of other jurisdictions will demonstrate. Second, was the penitentiary truly revolutionary? Perhaps in some places, but not in Maryland. Third, did the diverse paths to the penitentiary produce equally diverse forms of the penitentiary? At least in the case of Maryland, that seems not to have been the case.
Recommended Citation
Rice, Jim. "'This Province, so Meanly and Thinly Inhabited': Punishing Maryland's Criminals, 1681-1850." Journal of the Early Republic 19, no. 1 (1999): 15–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/3124921
Journal
Journal of the Early Republic
Rights
© 1999 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
Comments
This article was originally published in Journal of the Early Republic. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.