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U.S. History/Puritan Punishment

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Expert: Hank Hokamp - 6/4/2009


Question
Dear Hank,
Was drowning a woman ever a punishment for suspected infidelity? Was there a punishment for leaving children unattended? Did the punishment for women change in the colonies compared to in England? Just curious.
Thanks,
Lisa

Answer

THE PILLORY

  Hello, Lisa. Here we go:

  Puritan laws were often tied to the Bible in some way. Since long hair was considered inappropriate by Biblical interpretation, you would need to makefrequent trips to the barber to stay out of trouble. Swearing, sleeping during sermons, and skipping church were also punishable.

  The Puritans believed that punishment should be humiliating. The most common New England punishment were the stocks and pillory. Stocks were heavy wooden frames with holes that held the guilty persons ankles and sometimes wrists. The pillory was similar, but was designed so the person held in it would be in a standing position with his or her head and wrists secured. Usually the pillory was reserved for members of the community with high social standing, as opposed to the stocks, which were used for lower class individuals.  Usually, the stocks were accompanied by verbal abuse and rotten foods being thrown at you.

     Another form of public humiliation would be to have the criminal wear a large letter on their clothing. The letters would stand for the crime committed. A person with a T was a thief, with a D was charged with public drunkenness, and so on.

     Another form of punishment was the ducking stool. Reserved for women who gossiped or scolded their husbands, it was a teeter-totter like device, which had a stool attached to it where the woman would be tied. The woman would then be dunked in a lake or river, with the number of dunks depending on the judges ruling.

    Other, more brutal forms of punishment included whipping. Usually twenty to forty lashes were common, with one case of 117 lashes in the record book. The punishment did not stop with whipping. A hot awl was pierced through the tongue for a person who spoke against the religion. Sometimes ears were cut off. Occasionally, instead of just wearing a letter, the letter was brandedonto their forehead or other body parts.

    Execution was also a form of punishment in the colonies. Hanging was the most common form of execution, although burning at the stake was also used. One case in New York caused for the men to be "drawn and quartered," meaning they were dismembered and brutally mutilated as they were executed.

    That takes care of the Puritans.

    In colonial America, the troublemakers were punished in the center of town for the entire public to see. Locked in wooden frameworks in the town square, they served their time while the town people scoffed at them. Two types of framework punishment were:

· Pillory - this framework had holes for the criminal's head and hands to stick through while they stood up. Once locked in they might get rotten fruit or other items thrown at them. The wrongdoer was condemned to carry out his punishment in rain or shine or freezing weather.

· Stocks - it had holes in it which the troublemaker's ankles were locked while setting down.

· Whipping posts - where a criminal might be whipped before the whole town.

 That takes care of Colonial Amerca.

 Another weird punishment was the brank, also known as the bride's scold. The brank was a punishment enacted on women who gossiped or spoke too freely. It was a large iron framework placed on the head of the offender, forming a type of cage. There was a metal strip on the brank that fit into the mouth and was either sharpened to a point or covered with spikes so that any movement of the tongue was certain to cause severe injuries to the mouth. The woman was then led by a city official through the streets of town by a chain, then usually tied to a whipping post or pillory to stand in view of the cruel and verbally abusive public.

  The pillory was also used in England. As you know, it was a wooden post with a wooden block on top with holes in it for the person's hands and head to be placed in. The heads and hands were then locked into place while the person was forced to stand in public display for the decided sentence. In some cases the pillory was combined with a whipping post and stocks to make a one stop, public punishment device.

  Also among the list of Elizabethan punishment methods was the stocks. The stocks were similar to the pillory in that a part of the body was locked between two slabs of wood, but in the case of the stocks the feet were locked in the device instead of the hands and feet. The stocks were a proposed method of punishment for drunkenness in a 1605 Act. The offender would be fined to five shillings or six hours in the stocks. The Act was approved by King James I in 1623. The stocks were often used as a method of holding a criminal until a more severe sentence could be decided and carried out.

  One punishment about which there is not much to say is the whipping post. It was basically what the name says, a wooden post that the person was strapped to and whipped for the prescribed number of times. This correctional method was instituted during the reign of Henry VIII and then continued through the time of Queen Elizabeth.

  One more odd punishment worth mentioning was the ducking stool. Like the brank, it was a punishment for women whose speech was considered too brash and brazen or too free. The ducking stool was a wooden chair attached to a large lever system. The lever allowed the chair to be raised or lowered without the tipping of the chair, making it parallel to the ground at all times. The chair was then lowered into the water, dunking the loose tongued woman under the water.

  Based on the level of the offense and the cruelty of the deciding party the woman could be "ducked" any number of times, and in some cases of extreme measures, the woman could drown from the time spent under water. Some of the ducking stools were mobile and could be taken to the water's edge at the necessary time, while others were fixed into place along the coast of the water as a grim reminder to the women of the town of what free speaking could lead to.

   As you can tell, Lisa, the punishmets used in England found their way to Colonial America.

                                       HANK  

Hank Hokamp

Expertise

U. S. (American) History has been a hobby of mine for many a moon. When you understand history, you understand basic concepts and ideas. You will learn about cause and effect, relationships and human nature. I seem to have this "savior complex" due to which I seem to be automatically attracted to people who need my help on a daily basis. Since we are the only critters on the planet, how about joining me? Pleasure and satisfaction are your rewards. Remember to spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Experience

19 years which includes research!

Organizations
Phi Delta Theta Fraternity; Paralegal Assns.; Noon Optimists; DeMolay

Publications
Champaign (IL) News-Gazette newspaper (Feature writer and City reporter); Galveston News-Tribune; Orlando Sentinel-Star et al.

Education/Credentials
Two universities, one college and an institute. My major was Journalism with minors in American History and Sociology.

Awards and Honors
46 athletic awards, mostly in basketball, baseball and golf.

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