 |
| Whipping-post. |
This text is part of:
[434]
The whipping-post stood near the meeting-house, and was often used: even women suffered the indignity.
Conspicuous in the meeting-house was the stool of repentance, on which moral culprits sat during divine service and on lecture-days.
Sometimes they wore a paper cap, on which was written their sin. Wearing a halter round the neck was another form of punishment.
The pillory was often used; and the offender was saluted by the boys with rotten eggs.
Military offenders were obliged to ride the wooden horse, or sit in the bilboes.
Branding on the forehead, the cage, and the gallows, were each resorted to, according to the degrees of crime.
The Christian sentiments of the heart are outraged by the shameless exhibitions and cruelties sometimes witnessed on “lecture-day.”
What a transition,--from the altar of God the bare back!
This was teaching Puritan individualism with a vengeance.
The custom of whipping did not cease in Medford till 1790!
John Wilson and son. 22 School Street. Boston. 1855.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.