Vagrancy Docket, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1790-1815

Hundred of people were summarily committed to Philadelphia’s jail each year in the founding era as “vagrants” or “vagabonds.” For this group, which included disproportionate numbers of African-Americans and women, there was no trial and therefore no pretrial bail. Courtesy of the Philadelphia City Archives.

For an in-depth study of the Philadelphia Vagrancy Docket in the Early Republic, see Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan, Vagrants and Vagabonds: Poverty and Mobility in the Early American Republic (2019).