User:OldakQuill/bucking

Bucking was a form of positional torture employed during the American Civil War. The subject would sit on the floor with bended knees, their wrists would be bound together, and lowered over their knees. A stick would then be placed below their knees, and above their arms, forcing them to maintain this position for as long as the stick remained in place. Edward Nixon, a 19th century keeper in Sing Sing prison described that "[on] witnessing my first case of bucking, the circumstances most impressed on my mind were the brutality of the operation and the calm callousness of the officer." Amos Pilsbury, superintendent of Albany penitentiary in 1967 "disapproved of [bucking] entirely", stating that he found it (along with crucifixion and yoking) "cruel and degrading, more so than any of the punishments for which they have been substituted".