19. Incarceration for unpaid debts began to wane in the United States in the early 19th century
In 1821, Kentucky became the first state to outlaw the use of incarceration as a means of punishing debtors, or of forcing them to honor their debts. The state allowed the incarceration of those using fraud to avoid payments. Ohio followed suit in 1828. In 1831 Massachusetts ended the practice of locking up women for indebtedness, as well as for men with smaller debts. Earlier laws in the United States placed the burden for the costs of caring for a prisoner on the creditor who sued for incarceration, if the debtor swore under oath they were indigent. If the creditor failed to pay the support, the debtor was freed, though the debt was not discharged.
In 1833, changes to federal law made debtor’s prisons entirely under the control of the states. Sheriffs pursuing a debtor across state lines had no jurisdiction in another state, and reciprocal arrangements varied. The states and the federal government created numerous bankruptcy laws during the 19th century, though most at the federal level were short-lived. Nonetheless, societal changes to the debtor-creditor relationship evolved to the point that by the decade before the Civil War, imprisonment for unpaid debts became rare in the United States and its territories. It remained common in Great Britain and across the British Empire.