today we're looking at law in the old west
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as americans rushed to move west during the mid to late 1800s and boom towns began to spring up
filled with prospectors looking for gold and cowboys driving herds of cattle to market
law enforcement was slow to develop and many towns sprung up so quickly that basic city functions
such as law enforcement didn't necessarily organize today we look back at the time period
from right after the civil war in 1865 to the turn of the century in 1900 as being the wild west with
these lawless towns running out of control with outlaws saloons and gambling but surprisingly
despite being sensationalized by eastern newspapers these towns had fairly low crime rates
and in many cases were safer than larger cities in the east such as chicago or new york in fact
there were only eight recorded bank robberies in the entire wild west period throughout all of the
western states many assumed that gun fights were commonplace and that many people were murdered
but again this simply was not the case in fact in dodge city kansas one of the most famous western
boom towns they averaged only two murders per year but nonetheless legends of law men being
involved in quick draw gun duels capturing bank robbers chasing down bandits and riding across
miles of open range are all pictures that come to mind when thinking about law in the old west
most of these images come from books tv shows and movies but those that enforced law in the old west
had much more mundane or ordinary duties such as collecting taxes making sure stores were locked
up at night and seeing that business licenses were up to date among lawmen of the west were
different levels or different titles and duties within many communities they hired a sheriff
to serve within the town and surrounding county a sheriff's duties included maintaining peace
within the town's limits running the local jail ensuring city laws such as not carrying a firearm
in city limits which was a rule several boom towns had furthermore sheriffs were in charge
of making sure sentences were carried out such as hangings sheriffs could appoint deputies to
help in maintaining law and order and also would be in charge of forming posses to chase down known
outlaws many towns would also elect or appoint a town marshal that was responsible for items
strictly within the town limits and did many of the same tasks that the sheriff would do
u.s marshals were employees of the federal government and would have jurisdiction or legal
powers within their assigned districts so they did not generally cover one county or one town
but rather large areas of the west for most of the wild west period marshals were not paid a salary
but rather would collect fees for doing certain tasks such as capturing wanted fugitives or
transporting convicted criminals from place to place within their districts marshals could also
deputize deputy marshals to aid in accomplishing these tasks yet another element in the legal
system of the wild west were bounty hunters bounty hunters would track down wanted criminals
and bring them in dead or alive many earned a bad reputation as they brought in many fugitives dead
but many bounty hunters also served as deputy sheriffs and aided the sheriff in maintaining
law and order in many of the wild west boom towns these law enforcement entities simply
did not exist and so citizens took law into their own hands and practiced what we would call
vigilante justice impromptu posses would be formed and ride out to capture wanted outlaws
once outlaws were captured and brought in they would many times have to wait for a long time
in jail before a trial would take place since so many boom towns were located long distances
from each other and the towns were simply not big enough to support a full-time court
circuit judges would travel from town to town hear cases and make decisions on guilt or innocence
court cases would not necessarily be heard in courtrooms but rather in meeting halls where
the judge would not sit behind a bench but rather just simply sit at a desk or a table in the room
although law in the wild west was maybe not as wild as many believe
there was always dangers and risk for citizens and law men living on
the unsettled frontier so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching