HARD LABOR
HARD LABOR, punishment. In those states where the penitentiary system has been adopted, convicts who are to be imprisoned, as part of their punishment, are sentenced to perform hard labor. This labor is not greater than many freemen perform voluntarily, and the quantity required to be performed is not at all unreasonable. In the penitentiaries of Pennsylvania it consists in being employed in weaving, shoemaking, and such like employments.