Antedating of "Chain Gang"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 16:57:03 -0500, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>chain gang (OED 1834)
>
>1833 [copyright 1831] Henry St. Clair _The United States Criminal
>Calendar_ 350 (Making of Modern Law)  He was then taken out and lodged in
>the same room with the chain gang convicts, who are permitted to work
>abroad in the city every day.
>
>1833 James Ross _An Essay on Prison Discipline_ (ed. 2) 16 (Making of
>Modern Law)  It is a matter of daily observation that the men sentenced to
>the chain-gang from the service probably of a settler ... at first fall of
>considerably and are much wasted.


>From APS via Proquest:

1831 _Atkinson's Saturday Evening Post_ 19 Feb. 3/4 At New Orleans, on the
26th ult. a sailor, named Borden, was stabbed to the heart by a man called
the Jack of Clubs, who was attempting to rob him of a handkerchief. The
murderer had just been discharged from the chain gang.


--Ben Zimmer