Brides from Bridewell: Female Felons Sent to Colonial America

Brides from Bridewell is the story of the female felons from England and France who were sent to Colonial America to serve their prison sentences.

It sets forth the harsh, often inhuman, penal conditions then prevailing in those lands, and the fact that these thousands of feminine felons constituted one of the primary marital elements in the mothering of early America. Many women whose offenses were minor were deported. Others were confessed criminals. The facts constitute one of the neglect...