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Auction: 284 - Bond, Share & Americana Mailbid & Internet Exclusive
Lot: 1016

Pennsylvania Illegitemacy Prosecution Bizarre partly-printed DS "And´w G. Miller," 1p, oblong 8vo, [Gettysburg], Adams County, PA, 11/1834. It announces that "The Grand Inquest of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, inquiring in and for the body of the county...do present, that Lydia Meals, late of the said county of Adams, coloured woman, on the first day of January...did commit fornication, with a certain person to this Inquest unknown and a bastard child on the body of her...did then an there permit him to beget - contrary to the form of the Act of General Assembly...and against the Peace and Dignity of the Commonwealth..." Also signed by witness John Jenkins.VG. Oddly, the form is printed to refer to a man, and has been altered to suit the circumstances, although the intention of the law was surely to punish men who left women in needy circumstances, not the women themselves. Estimate US$ 40-50

Sold for
$125