O.K. I'll bite.  Webster's unabridged has a variety of entries related to the Latin "Scalpere," which means to cut or carve. This is the origin of words like "scallop" meaning to slice and "sculptor," one who carves. "Scallop" in the sense of the shellfish and shapes related to the edge of its shell appears to have a different origin. Therefore, the use of the term in the 17th century to mean "cut up" is perfectly likely, as is its use to refer to scallop-shaped welts from whipping. It makes little difference in effect, as whipping in those days commonly resulted not just in welts or "weals", but also in cuts. In fact, I believe the term "cuts" was sometimes used to mean "lashes." A severe whipping not uncommonly resulted in death.
     Spelling, in those days, was often rather free-form and phonetically based, so a word like "scalped" could easily have also come from "scallopped," meaning cut, merged conceptually with the unrelated but similar sounding noun "scalp" to form a new verb meaning "to cut the scalp from someone." I'm not sure it is possible to decide between these origins on a purely linguistic level.
     To me, the best point mentioned in this discussion (I can't recall who made it) was that there would be little reason at that time and place for a trader to scalp a slave. Whipping seems to make more sense, or even slashing with a knife as punishment, either of which could conceivably be described as "scallopping," and either of which could have resulted in a slow and painful death.

Marty Pickands
New York State Museum

>>> "G. Alcock" <[log in to unmask]> 7/11/2007 2:31 PM >>>
If one of our academic affiliated listers or lurkers would please check  the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary for us, there might be a  contemporaneous (and now archaic) usage cited.
  
  Please?
  
  Gwyn Alcock
  Riverside, CA

Ron May <[log in to unmask]> wrote:  Maybe "scalloped" is an archaic word for something we are missing?
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.