<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=167462.msg7923905#msg7923905">Quote from: Kokaine on 22-03-2013, 00:37:38</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Concealing a birth?<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>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.