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Laws can tell you a lot about what people in a town thought was important. Take, for example, this early law from 1859:
“Ordinance No. 1—An Ordinance to Prevent Hogs from Running at Large: That is shall not be lawful for any swine, hogs, shoats, or pigs to go at large within the limits of the City of Ann Arbor; and if any…shall be found, it shall be lawful for the drive the same to pound within said City…the Marshall or any person employed for that purpose by him, shall be entitled to receive the sum of ten cents for each hog driven to pound.”
Kind of like a dog pound for pigs, huh? This one law can tell you a lot about what life Ann Arbor was like in 1859. In the 1830s, one of the first Ann Arborites described the town as a “raw settlement,” a collection of log and wood houses with just a few built of brick and dirt roads in between. Visitors complained that there weren’t many hotels. In addition to the pigs running loose, another county law had to be passed to forbid watering animals at the same well that people used for drinking.
Just from reading this law, do you think Ann Arbor was a big town or a small town? What do you think most people did for a living (hint: think about jobs that involve lots of animals)?
Try reading your school rules together as a class. What seem like the most important rules? Why do you think they’re there? Do they tell you how teachers and principals think students might act?
Just to think about: