Owen Syllvan was a criminal from the beginning. He was “possessed” by a spirit as a boy. He then became an indentured slave for a ticket to New England. After he worked his time, he then became a criminal, printing counterfeit money. He was caught then thrown in jail for the printing. He married, unhappily, who then turned him in for making the counterfeit money. Once he got out of jail, the authorities found out that he printed fake money in New Hampshire. He fled to Rhode Island where he hid for a few years. He was eventually caught then put back in prison, where he broke out!
I just find it very amusing that Owen claimed that his bad blood was from a demon. He did tons of illegal things, but mainly printing counterfeit money. Its funny to see that he broke out of jail, and was on the run for years before he was caught again. Its cool to see how early the counterfeiting process began in early American history. It puts a whole new view one crime during then. I always thought that there was rise in counterfeiting more recent because of the printing technologies
As well as the confessions of sins, there was a lot of crime going on throughout early America. I never really noticed it until I sat down and started reading about them. It still continues to fascinate me that all of this crime still goes on today. However, the punishments I feel have become very lenient compared to the 1700s. Like you would be executed for killing someone but today you would only go to jail. It may be for the rest of your life but you aren’t going to be killed.