Debtors' prison
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A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe. Destitute people who wer
The 18th-century debtors' prison at the Castellania in Valletta, now the offices of the Health Ministry in Malta
Schuldturm in Nuremberg
A mid-Victorian depiction of the debtors' prison at St Briavels Castle
The Ancient South Gate and the Prison, Exeter by Thomas Burnett Worth circa 1880. The work depicts the South Gate in Exeter and the city prison which was demolished in 1819. A man under the archway, dressed in green coat and top hat, places something into a shoe which is suspended on string by two men from a window above. It alludes to the story about a room in the Keeper's house which came to be known as 'the shoe', according to the prison reformer
Debt bondage
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Debt bondage, also known as debt slavery, bonded labour, or peonage, is the pledge of a person's services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligations. Where the terms of the repaymen
Debtors' prison
…diseases contracted from others interned in debtors' prison for many years. Some debt prisoners were released to become serfs or indentured servants (debt bondage) until they paid off their debt in labor. Imprisonment for debt was also practised in Islam. Debtors who refused to pay their debts could be detained…
Child labor in brick kilns in Nepal
Workers storing rice in India in 1952
A worker preparing fish caught off the coast of South Africa