<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=167462.msg7924048#msg7924048">Quote from: Dhi on 22-03-2013, 01:06:25</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Giving birth under a sheet? That's a hangin'.<br/><br/>I'm guessing it was punishment for keeping a child's birth a secret. This was before Social Security Numbers but births were still being recorded and the government needed a record of its citizens. Babies could be delivered at home and with minimal or no involvement from a physician. If the parents didn't take it upon themselves to register the child, they could be completely off the radar. I imagine the strict punishment was to discourage parents from trying to spare children from something like the Civil War draft by making them noncitizens.<br/><br/>But, knowing the west, it might just as well have been punishment for a no-good woman keeping a baby secret from her husband or father.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>I believe it was an 'all of the above.'  I think that there were two or three midwives on record as having been hung for the offense, but whether it was simply not reporting the name or trying to hide an illegitimate child isn't totally clear.