Delaware, never one of the more radical of states, did away with the
stocks and pillory in 1902, just a century ago, when we built the
first of them new-fangled penitentiaries. The stocks and pillory
were part of the same structure as the whipping post. After the
radical liberals forced us to do away with the stocks and pillory,
our whipping posts were free-standing structures in the jailyard
where everyone passing could see them. The radicals finally removed
the whipping post about 1970, but the law required that a post be
kept at each jail, so they put it in the basement. We no longer have
whipping as a penalty in the state code, but just about every session
of the legislature entertains a few proposals to whip various kinds
of miscreants.
There is a wood engraved picture in one of the old nineteenth-century
illustrated newspapers, showing a whipping in process at the old New
Castle jail; the association of the whipping post and stocks and
pillory is quite evident in this picture.
There is another picture, of a whipping in the Kent County jail,
which was picked up by that radical left wing paper, Pravda, to
illustrate how backwards we are here in Amerika.
Forging ahead, we just dismantled our gallows. Progress!
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For any awkward moment, in any conversation,
there is always an appropriate, or insanely
inappropriate, limerick.
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