Colonial poor relief was local, stingy, and shifted costs onto newcomers through warning out

Evidence

The New England colonies copied the gen­ eral features of these poor laws. One of their chief features was local rule. Each town maintained its own poor—​those who were “settled” in the town. … Towns were eager to dodge the problems and costs of paupers, especially if they were relative newcomers; they frequently sued some other town, trying to palm a pauper off, and using the law of settlement as the basis for their suit. … Out of this kind of law grew the custom of “warning out.” This was the opposite of the welcome wagon: if some new arrival looked like a pauper, or a potential pauper, the word was not “welcome,” but “get out.” Between 1737 and 1788, 6,764 persons were “warned out” in Worcester County alone. “Warning out” was not a sentence of banishment, but a disclaimer of responsibility; some towns “warned out” practically every new arrival. A warned-​out pauper could, however, be physically removed. In any event, “warning out” threw the burden of support back on the former place of settlement. The system, in other wordsk a harsh, cold attitude toward strangers who were down on their luck. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 478