Vigilant Assn Upper Oxford Township Chester County Pennsylvania 1850s Cloth Sign

Description

Circa 1850s printed cloth sign from the Vigilant Association of Upper Oxford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Sign reads, "THE PROPERTY ON THESE PREMISES IS PROTECTED BY THE VIGILANT ASSOCIATION of Upper Oxford and Adjoining Townships for the Detection of Thieves and Recovery of STOLEN PROPERTY. A standing reward of is offered for the arrest and conviction of thief or thieves stealing from members of this Association." Housed in a period frame. Attached in the photos is a reward ad from the September 15, 1858 Lancaster (PA) Examiner and Herald newspaper offering a 0 reward for a stolen mare with additional reward money provided by the aforementioned Vigilant Association.
A vigilance committee was a group formed of private citizens to administer law and order or exercise power through violence in places where they considered governmental structures or actions inadequate. A form of vigilantism and often a more structured kind of lynch mob, the term is commonly associated with the frontier areas of the American West in the mid-19th century, where groups attacked cattle rustlers and people at gold mining claims; held kangaroo courts; and beat, killed, or exiled those they believed had violated their preferred norms (sometimes on a thin pretext of such, motivated by personal or mercenary gain). As non-state organizations, no functioning checks existed to protect against excessive force or safeguard "due process" from the committees. In the years prior to the Civil War, some committees worked to free slaves and transport them to freedom.
* CONDITION:  Very Good with about a quarter inch of the textile around the periphery folded back on the reverse which was done to fit the frame.
* SIZE: Measures approximately 9 5/8 x 11 5/8 inches overall with frame. Actual textile measures approximately 8 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches.