Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Collective Violence In Ferryland District, Newfoundland, 1788, Christopher English
Collective Violence In Ferryland District, Newfoundland, 1788, Christopher English
Dalhousie Law Journal
In September 1788 a court found 114 men guilty of riotous assembly in the district of Ferryland the previous winter. This event is remarkable for the number involved (45% of the adult male population of the district); for the number of charges (21% of all civil and criminal actions heard in the district's courts over the next 25 years); for the absence of damage to property; and for the severity of the sentences, which included loss of wages, flogging, transportation and banishment. These proceedings occurred in a community where *the majority (Irish planters, fishermen and apprentices) were socially distinct from …