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Long title | An Act for the relief of persons imprisoned for debt. |
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Nicknames | Debtors' Relief Act of 1792 |
Enacted by | the 2nd United States Congress |
Effective | May 5, 1792 |
Citations | |
Public law | Pub. L. 2–29 |
Statutes at Large | 1 Stat. 265, Chap. 29 |
Legislative history | |
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Debtors' Prison Relief Act of 1792 was a United States federal statute enacted into law by the first President of the United States George Washington on May 5, 1792. The Act of Congress established penal regulations and restrictions for persons jailed for property debt, tax evasion, and tax resistance. The indebtedness penalty was governed as a forbidding act for citizens indebted to colonial provinces. The public law granted a sunset provision limiting the term of the federal statute for the colonial domains.
The Second United States Congress drafted public law 2-29 as four sections providing judicial conformity for colonial debtors who had insolvent financial bankrolls.
Chapter XXIX § 1: Gaol Privileges of Confinement and Yards
Chapter XXIX § 2: Court Proceedings for Debtors
Poor Debtors' Oath
"You solemnly swear (or affirm) that you have not estate, real or personal, nor is any to your knowledge holden in trust for you to the amount or value of twenty dollars, nor sufficient to pay the debt for which you are imprisoned."
Chapter XXIX § 3: Penalty for False Statement
Chapter XXIX § 4: Limitation of Act
In 1839, the 25th United States Congress passed legislation seeking to prohibit confinement for public defaulters. The federal debt relief law was enacted into law by the 8th President of the United States Martin Van Buren on February 28, 1839. [1]
The United States statute was authored with the stated conditions of the public law:
That no person shall be imprisoned for debt in any State, on process issuing out of a court of the United States, where by the laws of such State, imprisonment for debt has been abolished; and where by the laws of a State, imprisonment for debt shall be allowed, under certain conditions and restrictions, the same conditions and restrictions shall be applicable to the process issuing out of the courts of the United States; and the same proceedings shall be had therein, as are adopted in the courts of such State.
Chronology of United States federal laws related to judicial relief of domestic debtors.
United States Statutes related to Debtors' Relief | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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18th Century Debtors' Prisons
Notable Colonists and Debt Dilemmas
William Duer | John Pintard |
Henry Lee III | Daniel Shays |
Robert Morris | James Swan |
James Oglethorpe | James Wilson |
18th & 19th Century New York Debtors' Gaol Old Debtors' Prison or New Gaol known as Hall of Records in 1830 at Civic Center, Manhattan (ca. 1893) |
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