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Description and Holding Information
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House. Comm. on the Pauper System. Report on report of the Commissioners, 1835 (Reprinting)
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SEE ALSO 52461 [orig.report], 52612, 52637 House No. 12
Reprint of the report of 1833. Report of the Commissioners appointed by an order of
the House of Representatives on February 29, 1832 on the subject of the pauper system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Boston : Dutton &
Wentworth, 1833. The Commission was to suggest changes to the existing law and appointed an agent to visit as many towns as possible to gather data.
Distinction was made between town poor and state poor and the wandering poor. Many towns used a contractor system wherein the contractor provided care,
food, and lodging for a defined group and could use any labor the group could provide. Some towns had implemented poor farms or workhouses. Some towns
still auctioned off the poor, but there were moral qualms about that. Children were bound out as young as eight. Some places made a distinction
between workhouses and almshouses. A distinction was made between those houses that allowed ardent spirits for the inmates and those who did not. The
Commission made nine recommendations: 1. Diminish state support by one third for each of the next three years 2. Remove residency laws 3. Let local
jurisdictions decide who qualified for charity 4. State would make grants for workhouses so as to encourage their use 5. Try to lessen the use of jails as
workhouses 6. Work out some penalty to discourage pushing wandering poor to the next jurisdiction 7. Try to identify the best type of family housing
8. Require an annual statistical report 9. Set up a committee to develop bills to implement the suggestions. There were 54 pages of textual reports
from towns, followed by three dense tables of statistics. (Digitized from a microfilm copy of title originally held by the Massachusetts State
Library).
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Title:
Report of the commissioners appointed by an order of the House of Representatives, Feb. 29, 1832, on the subject of the pauper system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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OCLC Number:
1406036270
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Available Volumes
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| Name | Fiche Count | Online | Paper Backup |
| Vol. 1 | | Yes | No |
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