Curious Punishments of Bygone Days



Curious Punishments of Bygone Days is a history book published in 1896. It was written by Alice Morse Earle and printed by Herbert S. Stone & Company. Earle was a historian of Colonial America, and she writes in her introduction:

In ransacking old court records, newspapers, diaries and letters for the historic foundation of the books which I have written on colonial history, I have found and noted much of interest that has not been used or referred to in any of those books. An accumulation of notes on old-time laws, punishments and penalties has evoked this volume.

As the title suggests, the subject of the chapters is various archaic punishments. Morse seems to make a distinction between stocks for the feet, in the Stocks chapter, and stocks for the head, described in the Pillory article- which itself clashes with the modern day understanding of a pillory as a whipping post.

Table of contents

 * Foreword
 * The Bilboes
 * The Ducking Stool
 * The Stocks
 * The Pillory
 * Punishments of Authors and Books
 * The Whipping Post
 * The Scarlet Letter
 * Branks and Gags
 * Public Penance
 * Military Punishments
 * Branding and Maiming