RICHARD CURLAND: Punishment in 1800s provided torture, public entertainment
By RICHARD CURLAND
Posted May. 28, 2008 @ 12:01 am
Updated May 28, 2008 at 1:03 AM
Connecticut’s history of crime and punishment during the 1800s is worth revisiting.
One word can aptly describe the punishment imposed on perpetrators in the first half of that century — cruel.
Adultery, bigamy and manslaughter were punishable by whipping and branding. For perjury, people were placed in the stocks with their ears nailed.
The severity of the whipping varied, depending on the crime and the leniency of the magistrate. The number of strokes usually ranged from 10 to 30.
Until 1816, adultery required 30 strokes of the whip and an A branded on the forehead with a hot iron. The accused also had to wear a halter-like device around the neck to designate the crime.
Eventually, prison sentences replaced these punishments, especially for women, who were sent to workhouses rather than given whippings.
Whipping posts still were evident on town commons and in front of public buildings early in the 20th century. In the small Eastern Connecticut villages, the whipping posts eventually transitioned into posts for public notices.
By the middle of the 1820s, much of the whipping had been abolished, because many believed the statutes were too cruel. But there remained a segment of the population who believed examples had to be made and the cruel punishments might reform the offenders.
Another punishment was the public hanging.
In the 1800s, hangings were considered entertainment and provided a boon to business for shopkeepers, peddlers and tavern owners. Hangings took on the characteristics of a ceremonial event in which elected officials and clergymen participated.
So-called watchers were hired to prevent the prisoner from committing suicide, thereby cheating the businesses out of a profit, because these gatherings attracted thousands of spectators.
Ships built in Norwich, which sailed the world, were not immune to imposing severe punishment on their crews for disobedience or other infractions on board. Despite depictions in films, a typical mutiny involved sailors simply refusing to obey certain orders until some condition was met, such as the receipt of overdue pay, and most mutinies took place when a ship was in port, not at sea. Some mutinies resulted in no punishment at all.
But when punishments were meted out at sea, they included flogging, being set adrift, keel hauling, hanging (for desertion), demotion to a lower rank and time in a makeshift cell.
On land, when imprisonment became the rule, two Connecticut locations became major players — the caverns of Newgate Prison and, later, the prison at Wethersfield.
Today, it’s hard to believe such inhuman practices took place, but letters, journals, interviews and research all prove they did.
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/artic...#ixzz33FPekRdt
