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Vagrants and Vagabonds: Poverty and Mobility in the Early American Republic by Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan (review)

Vagrants and Vagabonds: Poverty and Mobility in the Early American Republic by Kristin... book revi ews Vagrants and Vagabonds: Poverty and Mobility in the Early American Republic. By Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan. (New York: New York University Press, 2019. Pp. 225. Cloth, $35.00.) “Ding! You are now free to move about the country,” Southwest Airlines used to advertise to its passengers. That freedom did not exist in the early American republic, Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan demonstrates in Vagrants and Vagabonds: Poverty and Mobility in the Early American Republic. Instead, municipal officials tightly controlled how Americans moved about the country. Using settlement laws and vagrancy statutes, local govern- ments denied mobility to significant numbers of poor Americans, which had a chilling effect on the mobility of others. Going by different titles in different states, local officials could stop and interrogate newcomers to town. Then, they could incarcerate or banish the newcomers from town if they thought it appropriate. While other scholars believe that warning out was not practiced much past 1800, O’Brassill-Kulfan finds the practice thriving into the 1830s, and occasionally used in the 1930s. Moreover, she argues, these official responses to mobility among the poor gave shape to citizenship, policing, and poor relief in the early republic and continue to shape ideas about race and immigration http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Journal of the Civil War Era University of North Carolina Press

Vagrants and Vagabonds: Poverty and Mobility in the Early American Republic by Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan (review)

Loiacono, Gabriel
The Journal of the Civil War Era , Volume 10 (2) – Jun 1, 2020
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright @ The University of North Carolina Press
ISSN
2159-9807

Abstract

book revi ews Vagrants and Vagabonds: Poverty and Mobility in the Early American Republic. By Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan. (New York: New York University Press, 2019. Pp. 225. Cloth, $35.00.) “Ding! You are now free to move about the country,” Southwest Airlines used to advertise to its passengers. That freedom did not exist in the early American republic, Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan demonstrates in Vagrants and Vagabonds: Poverty and Mobility in the Early American Republic. Instead, municipal officials tightly controlled how Americans moved about the country. Using settlement laws and vagrancy statutes, local govern- ments denied mobility to significant numbers of poor Americans, which had a chilling effect on the mobility of others. Going by different titles in different states, local officials could stop and interrogate newcomers to town. Then, they could incarcerate or banish the newcomers from town if they thought it appropriate. While other scholars believe that warning out was not practiced much past 1800, O’Brassill-Kulfan finds the practice thriving into the 1830s, and occasionally used in the 1930s. Moreover, she argues, these official responses to mobility among the poor gave shape to citizenship, policing, and poor relief in the early republic and continue to shape ideas about race and immigration

Journal

The Journal of the Civil War Era – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Jun 1, 2020

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