The Persian Empire believed in justice. They had strict and careful rules about sentencing a punishment for a crime. No one, they believed, should be executed for a first offense, and every criminal’s good deeds should be considered before handing down judgement. If someone was going to suffer, he should deserve it.

But if you did deserve it, the Persians made sure you paid for it. They came up with some of the most imaginative and brutal punishments in history. Justice in ancient Persia wasn’t always swift—it was a slow, prolonged, and painful torture torn from your worst nightmares.

10 Making A Chair Out Of Your Skin

When a Persian judge named Sisamnes was caught accepting a bribe, King Darius was determined to make an example out of him. The courts of Persia, Darius believed, should be impartial and fair. He was going to be sure that Sisamnes’s replacement didn’t make the same mistake.

Sisamnes was killed, but that was just the start. After his throat had been slit, Darius had the executioners flay off every inch of his skin and make them into strips of human leather. Then he had them sew together a chair made of Sisamnes’s skin.^[1] From then on, the new judge would have to sit on a chair made of human flesh.

It gets worse: Sisamnes’s replacement was his own son. As he presided over Persia’s trials, he would have to spend every day sitting on a chair made of his father’s flesh. Now, King Darius believed, they would have a judge who would never forget what happened if he accepted a bribe.

9 Drowning In A Pool Of Ashes

One of the worst deaths you could suffer in ancient Persia was suffocation by ashes. It was a punishment reserved for the worst criminals: those guilty of high treason or offenses against the gods. And it was horrifying.

The Persians kept a 23-meter-tall (75 ft) hollow tower that was filled with nothing but ashes and wheels. At the top was a sliding platform, and the criminal would be taken to it and thrown in. He would plummet down into the center of the tower. The fall would likely break a few bones, but the ashes would keep him alive long enough to suffer the slower, more brutal death they had planned.

The executioners would turn the wheels. Men outside would put them into motion, swirling the ashes around to force them into the convict’s nose and mouth. He would inhale them, suffocating on burned ashes until he died.^[2]

It’s a sentence more than a few people faced, and it even shows up in the Bible. In it, a corrupt Jewish priest is killed by the Persians in the tower of ashes. When he dies, his family isn’t allowed to bury his remains. “And that,” the Bible says to conclude the story, “was just what he deserved.”

8 Pouring Molten Gold Down Your Throat

When the Roman emperor Valerian was captured by Persian soldiers, he met a horrible end. He died a death that might sound like something pulled out of Game of Thrones. The real story, though, is much, much worse.

Persian emperor Shapur I kept Valerian as his personal slave. He would parade him in front of his army, his hands and legs shackled, treating him like a dog. He humiliated him every way he could. Before mounting his horse, Shapur would make Valerian get down on his hands and knees so that he could use him as a human stool.^[3]

When Shapur got bored of his toy, he killed him. He poured molten gold down Valerian’s throat. Then he had the emperor of Rome taxidermied. Valerian was skinned and stuffed with straw, and his dead body was put on display in a Persian temple—a trophy of gold and human remains.

7 Tearing People Apart With Trees

In the later years of Persia, thieves had to deal with horrifying punishments. Anyone caught stealing or harassing a rider on the roads of the empire was sentenced to death—by being torn in half.^[4]

The executioners would pull the tops of two trees as close to one another as they could and tie them together. They would drag the convict over and tie one leg to the top of each tree. Then they would cut the cord holding the trees together.

The two trees would spring free, pulling apart at incredible speeds and shooting back upright with the criminal still tied to them. His body would tear in half from the force. Within a second, two halves of what was once one man would hang from the trees.

His body would be left there, hanging over the road where he’d robbed an innocent person. Anyone who passed through these parts, the Persians believed, would get a harsh reminder of just what would happen if they followed the lives of thieves.

6 Crushing Your Servants’ Heads With Stones

As much as Persia tried to be fair about its crimes, they didn’t exactly ignore class status. The king could get away with anything, and as long as they were in his good books, his family could, too. When King Artaxerxes II’s own mother murdered his wife, he couldn’t bring himself to execute her—so he killed her servants, instead.

Parysatis, Artaxerxes’s mother, hated her daughter-in-law Stateira, and Stateira hated her right back. They had to pretend to be civil in public, but they tried to kill each other so often that Artaxerxes had to set up rules to keep them from pulling it off. When they dined together, he ordered that everything they ate had to be cut in two and shared so that they couldn’t poison each other.

It didn’t work. Parysatis had poison put on one side of a knife and had her servant use it to cut the meat, poisoning the half that went to Stateira and keeping her half untainted. It worked, and the king’s mother murdered the queen.

It was obvious, of course, who was responsible, but Artaxerxes couldn’t bring himself to kill his mother. He had all her servants tortured until they confessed. Then he had the meat cutter’s head smashed in with a rock.^[5] Parysatis, though, was just sent into exile.

It didn’t take long before Artaxerxes invited her right back. And she helped him pick a new wife: Parysatis convinced Artaxerxes to marry his own daughter.

5 Chaining Dismembered People To Gates

It was fairly common in Persia and the nations around it to torture rebels by cutting off their noses and ears.^[6] That kind of brutal torture, though, wasn’t always a death sentence. Sometimes, they kept you alive. And sometimes, that was worse than death.

When the people revolted against King Darius, he made sure everyone knew what would happen if they turned against him again. He rounded up the rebel leaders and cut off their noses, ears, and tongues and plucked out one of each of their eyes—but he didn’t kill them. Not yet.

The rebel leaders were chained up and bound to the front gate of his castle so that everyone who walked by it would see their mutilated bodies. Their lieutenants, meanwhile, were decapitated, and their heads were hung from the top of the city citadel.

They were left there for weeks, being jeered and beaten by everyone who walked by, staring at the remains of their friends and suffering in excruciating pain. Then, when they couldn’t take anymore, they were allowed to die.

4 Making The Slaughter Of Your People An Annual Holiday

In Persia, Zoroastrian priests were called the Magi. This didn’t necessarily mean that they had magical powers; they were religious leaders. And after one of them got a little overambitious, their jobs became hell.

A Magi named Smerdis tricked the people into believing he was the son of Cyrus the Great and got himself crowned as king of Persia. He was actually a great king, loved by his people. He introduced tax reforms that made life easier and relaxed the laws on military conscription—but he stole the throne, so naturally, he had to die.

When the people found out, they didn’t stop at murdering Smerdis. They ran through the streets of the kingdom, spreading the word and murdering every member of the Magi they could find.^[7]

When the massacre was over, the people decided to make it an annual event. Once every year, the Persians celebrated a holiday called “the Slaughter of the Magi.” On the anniversary of Smerdis’s death, they would run through the streets, and if they caught any Magi outside, they would brutally murder them.

3 Letting Insects Eat You Alive

Scaphism might already be the best-known of the Persian punishments, but the list would be incomplete without it. Few tortures compare.

This torture was reserved for people the king really hated. The victim would be stripped naked and put inside of a hollowed-out tree trunk or two boats, with his heads, hands, and feet sticking out and exposed to the Sun. Then he would be force-fed milk and honey until he had diarrhea and became literally buried in his own filth.

The torturers would rub honey over the exposed parts of his body to lure over insects. Bugs would crawl over the convict and slowly eat away at his flesh, while wasps would agonize with their stingers until he prayed for death.^[8]

The torturers, though, would continue to force-feed him to keep him alive for as long as possible. After a few days, the victim’s mind would start to deteriorate, but he would still be alive. It could take weeks before his body finally gave out and died. The first time they tried it, it took 17 days of agony and praying for death before the victim’s prayers were finally answered.

2 The Triple Death

Some people, the Persians believed, deserved more than one death. If their crime was terrible enough, they wouldn’t settle to kill them once. They’d make them die three deaths before they were allowed to stop breathing.

The victims wouldn’t actually die, but they would go through the agony of death three times. When a eunuch angered the wife of Cyrus the Great, for example, she first had his eyes pulled out of his head. Then, once he’d recovered, she had him flayed alive. Then they nursed him back to health again before finally crucifying him.^[9]

It wasn’t the only time it happened. After a soldier tried to take credit for killing Cyrus the Younger in battle when he’d really only wounded him, the king ordered his execution. The king’s mother, though, intervened, saying, “Leave him to me, and he shall receive the fitting reward for his daring words.”

First, she had him stretched out on the wheel for ten days. Then she gouged out his eyes. And then, finally, she finished him off—by pouring molten brass into his ears until he died.

1 Forcing People To Eat Their Children

A Median general named Harpagus went through the worst punishment possible for the lightest offense. King Astyages had a dream that his grandson would overthrow him, so he ordered Harpagus to take the infant out into the wilderness and leave him to die. Harpagus, instead, gave the baby to a shepherd, who raised the child as his own.

It took ten years for Astyages to find out he’d been disobeyed, but when he did, he was vicious. He cut Harpagus’s son’s throat, chopped him from limb to limb, roasted his flesh, and served him to Harpagus at a banquet.

At first, Harpagus didn’t know what he was eating or even that his son was dead. Astyages, however, made his servants put the dead boy’s head on the table in front of him and taunted him, saying, “Do you know what beast’s meat you have eaten?”

Harpagus knew what would happen to him if he tried to take revenge. He couldn’t even dare to cry in front of the king who had murdered and fed him his own son. “I know,” Harpagus was forced to say, “and all that the king does is pleasing.”^[10]

He complimented Astyages on the dish and asked to take the rest with him. Then he carried what they’d let him take back to his home and buried the last remains of his son.

“If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime” is a fairly well known saying that dates back some years now. The meaning of the idiom is simple enough – be prepared for the consequences of your actions. 

That sounds straightforward on the surface, but sometimes the consequences are curiously off balanced compared to the actions and people don’t always know that ahead of time. For that reason, if you plan on doing any crime, familiarize yourself with the punishments beforehand so you don’t run into any situations like these.

10. Owning a Bald Eagle Feather Can Get You Sent to Prison and Fined

Bald eagles have been a symbol of America since 1782. In 1978 the birds were listed as endangered. In 2007 they actually got off the endangered list thanks to huge efforts to save the species, and now it’s not even threatened any longer. But the road to that success was paved with harsh rules for anyone who dared cross paths with the majestic bird. 

Hunting and killing bald eagles is very much illegal, and that makes plenty of sense. What makes a little less sense is that possessing anything to do with a bald eagle is also illegal. That means if you have bald eagle feathers you’re committing a crime, even if you just found them on the ground.

The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940 makes it illegal for anyone to take one of these birds or anything to do with them including nests, eggs and feathers. The language of the act makes it clear it’s preventing people from hunting and poaching the birds focusing specifically on trafficking and selling but “possess” is specifically mentioned as well. 

The punishment, for a first offense, can include a $100,000 fine and a year in prison or both. Legally, only members of recognized Native American tribes may possess the feathers which can be used for certain ceremonial purposes. 

Keep in mind that these are maximum penalties and you probably won’t be fined and imprisoned if you find a single feather. That said, you could definitely be forced to return it and, if you refuse, legal action may then be taken. 

9. Thai Cops Are Punished With Hello Kitty Armbands

There’s a certain train of thought that says humiliation is a suitable form of punishment. Think of The Scarlet Letter and the idea that an adulterer be branded so all can see and mock their discretion. Psychologists don’t necessarily agree that humiliation is ideal, especially for kids, but it still happens. 

In Thailand, if members of the police department are found to have broken some sort of rules, their punishment can be meted out with a noticeable and humiliating brand. In this case, it’s a pink Hello Kitty armband. 

Police are supposed to be role models for following the rules so if a cop is caught littering or parking illegally, they get put on desk duty with the armband for their coworkers to see. They’re spared the shame of having to work out in public wearing it, so the shame of being among fellow officers is supposed to be enough. 

8. Touching a Member of the Thai Royal Family Was a Capital Offense

Speaking of Thailand, the country’s rules proved to be so daunting that, in one extreme example, they backfired horribly. It was in 1880 when Queen Sunandha Kumariratana was vacationing with her family and crossing a river by boat with her daughter. The current was strong, and the boat capsized.

There were many guards and servants about and you’d think someone would have rushed in to save the Queen’s life, but you’d be wrong. One law of the land at the time stated no one was allowed to touch a member of the Royal family for any reason under pain of death. Any touch could be considered a capital crime. As such, the Queen and her daughter both drowned.

The King is said to have imprisoned everyone who could have saved them despite their adherence to the law, and then abolished the law altogether so it could never happen again.

7. Attempted Suicide Has Been Criminalized In Many Countries

Most people generally recognize a suicide attempt as a symptom of a mental illness of some kind, and likely linked to depression. Those who attempt suicide can be arrested or detained in hospitals but the hope is that the person will be able to see a doctor and get help to get to the root cause of why they tried to take their own life. That’s the ideal outcome, anyway.

In many places, especially in the past, a suicide attempt was simply vilified. Up to the 1950s, Britain criminalized suicide attempts and a small portion of offenders were sentenced to jail time. Back in the 13th century if someone did commit suicide, their surviving family was punished and all their possessions were taken by the government.

Though England eventually decriminalized attempts, not everyone did. In many countries it’s still a crime. The Bahamas has the stiffest laws on the books for offenders and if someone survives, they can be sentenced to life in prison for it.

6. DreamWorks Animators Were Punished by Having to Work on Shrek

Most jobs have a process for dealing with employees who aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing. In extreme cases if you commit a crime beyond the confines of work they’ll call the police. But within the realm of poor performance you may get fired at worst, or written up for a small-scale offense. 

Some businesses have a three strikes rule before a firing, or maybe you’ll have to take some training again to prove you can do the job expected of you.

DreamWorks Animation opted for a more unusual approach to punishment after the studio was first formed. The studio’s first movie, The Prince of Egypt, was done with traditional animation. Remember, this was the mid 1990s and computer animation was not really a thing yet. Pixar had only just released Toy Story in 1995.

When an animator was found to have messed up in some way on the production of Prince of Egypt they were sent to work on Shrek as punishment. Shrek started production around 1995, but it wasn’t released until 2001. The movie had gone through numerous changes including character designs and voice actors. It was treated like the “ugly stepchild” of the studio that no one believed would ever get made let alone succeed.

Animators called the punishment being “Shreked.” Why was it so maligned? Because, when it was first pitched, the story was terrible, the budget was miniscule, and the studio had hired a bunch of recent grads with no experience. Work was done in an ugly warehouse and the team kept changing as people walked out or were fired. And, because it lasted years, to many it must have seemed endless.

5. Etiquette Breaches at Oxford Were Punishable by Drinking Beer

One thing people tend to find very disagreeable is when an organization polices itself and metes out punishments that are, by most measures, ineffective. Police officers getting suspended for egregious crimes is an extreme example of things, but schools are known to behave similarly.

At Oxford, that prestigious old British university, those who breach etiquette in some way suffer a punishment called sconcing. These breaches could include poorly speaking Latin or talking about women. This dates back to the 1600s and has evolved somewhat since then to its current form, which exists in numerous schools.

A person found to have violated some ethical rule is forced to sconce, which involves drinking a pint of beer. In some cases everyone gets to drink at the same time. In others it’s something of an elaborate drinking game that can get everyone drunk if done right. In other versions, a person has to propose a sconce by accusing the others of some act. Anyone guilty of that act must drink. You may recognize this as basically “never have I ever.”

4. A Teen Was Tried as an Adult for Sending Selfies of a Minor (Himself)

One of the most infamous crimes of the age of computers has been the proliferation of videos and images of child pornography. Whole task forces have been set up to stop this and there are cybercrimes units across the globe that deal with these issues. And while that is absolutely something that needs to be dealt with, it’s not always dealt with in the right way. 

In North Carolina, a 17-year-old boy was tried as an adult for possessing nude photos of an underage person. That person was himself. The pictures were selfies he’d taken when he was 16. The boy ended up taking a plea deal just to keep himself off of a sex offender list and avoid jail time.

His charges included four counts of making and possessing images of himself and one count of having a photo of his girlfriend, who was the same age. The girl was also charged and took a similar plea deal. In both cases they were the adult perpetrator and minor victim of the same crime.

A 15-year-old girl in Ohio was facing similar charges years earlier, and the FBI has several other examples on file.

3. George R R Martin’s Punishment for Avoiding Vietnam Was Being Called a Coward

Numerous people came out against the Vietnam war draft back in the 1960s, and Game of Thrones writer George R. R. Martin was among them. He applied for conscientious objector status which would exclude him from going to war and, according to Martin, he was granted it very quickly. But it did come with a price.

Martin said the draft board decided that Martin would be punished by being branded a “coward for life” as a result of his actions, and that would be a suitable burden to bear. Seems like he’s handled it pretty well.

2. More Than One School Has Taken Canes Away From Blind Students

Education is considered a vital part of any child’s life but, if the news has taught us anything as adults, it’s that schools are constantly fumbling the ball in new and creatively horrible ways. For instance, when it comes to the punishment of blind kids.

Sure, a blind child could have a discipline issue that needs to be addressed, but you’d think anyone with common sense might think twice before taking away the child’s cane, which is necessary for getting around as a person with limited or no vision. Nonetheless, it’s happened a few times.

In Kansas City, an 8-year-old had their cane taken and replaced with a pool noodle after he was accused of hitting someone on the bus with it. The child, who was born without eyes, is known to fidget and sometimes raises their cane just to move it around. The bus driver reported this as the child being violent. 

In the UK, a student was banned from using her cane because the school felt it was a risk to others who might trip over it.

1. Until 2009 There Was No Punishment For Selling Children in Mississippi

For many of these entries we’ve seen a punishment that seemed too extreme for the crime. In a few, the punishment was more of a joke that didn’t match the crime for the opposite reasons. And finally, we’re one where the crime seems unbelievably egregious and the only thing more unbelievable is that there was no punishment at all.

Until the year 2009 there was no punishment in the state of Mississippi for selling a child. As in, a human child. It wasn’t technically a crime. This only came to light because, in 2008, a woman tried to sell her granddaughter for $2,000 and a car. The woman was only charged with a probation violation unrelated to the incident because they couldn’t find a valid crime on the books to charge her with as it relates to, and this can’t be stressed enough, selling an entire human being.

When the case came to light, a new law was proposed and passed, letting Mississippi leap into the 19th century, just a couple hundred years late. Of interest, however, is that there is still no federal law prohibiting the sale of children. A law was passed to protect them from sex trafficking but the language omitted the sale of children for black market adoptions or just for good, old-fashioned profit.

Criminal punishment in most of the Western world is fairly straightforward today; most who have committed a crime can simply expect either a fine or varying amounts of prison time based on their misdeed’s severity. These, however, haven’t always been simple facts.

History is full of cruel and—more importantly in this case—often extremely strange punishments and legal proceedings, ten of which we’ll be examining right now.

Related: Top 10 Bizarre Historical Crimes You Haven’t Heard Of

10 Drunkard’s Cloak

The strange “drunkard’s cloak,”‘ also known as the Newcastle cloak in the north of England, was a method of punishment given to repeat-offender alcoholics who apparently could not behave after drinking.

The strange idea was pretty simple. Take a massive, heavy wooden barrel typically designed to store alcoholic beverages, cut necessary holes for the head and limbs to fit through it, and force the offender to wear it for an extended period while marching through the local streets, presumably resulting in public humiliation.

The townsfolk would act hostile and ridicule those who wore these “barrel shirts,” treating it as a local event of sorts. To add insult to injury or perhaps injury to insult, the heavy garment may have caused more than a few injuries and a decent amount of physical stress on the wearers’ bodies. If nothing else, it may have been an excellent deterrent, at least.^[1]

9 Shame Masks

Wearing an odd-looking mask designed to make the wearer look ridiculous is a fairly lighthearted idea for punishment, and as such, it was used for equally light crimes.

The masks were made of cold metal and would feature animalistic or just simply odd designs, and many of these pieces of headwear are now displayed in museums today.

Shame masks were frequently used to punish women and were also referred to as a “scold’s bridle” since they were often meant to punish what was considered the social crime of local women’s gossip. Other reasons for the punishment included dishonesty, eavesdropping, and gluttony, which would all result in time wearing these masks, which were meant to be a humiliating deterrent.

Interestingly, the designs would differ depending on the crime, with those punished for lying receiving masks with longer noses, for instance. The people wearing these were sometimes led around in chains as a crowd was called with a bell so many could witness the strange display.^[2]

8 Trees

A bit of a warning to any sensitive readers on this one as, despite what the innocent title may suggest, this method of punishment was particularly gruesome.

Thievery is a crime many look down upon, certainly, but not one most would consider requiring one of the most gruesome and strangely creative forms of execution in history. Devised and heavily used in the ancient Persian empire, offending thieves were to be killed using two trees.

The trees were bent back unnaturally and secured in their position with ropes. Then the unfortunate criminal was tied to them. His left limbs to one side and right limbs to the other. The ropes holding the trees in place were then cut, and the thief—who now surely heavily regretted his actions—was torn apart by force as the trees returned to their upright position. If nothing else, at least it was supposedly pretty quick.^[3]

7 Ancient Egyptian Nose Cutting

A person’s face is what jumps out to us most when meeting someone—the most expressive and unique area of the body. So it’s not actually surprising that it’d be a target of creative punishment.

Ancient Egyptians certainly thought it made sense, at least, when they devised their punishment of nose amputation. The odd and cruel act would leave the victim alive but impair their quality of living and was seen as greatly damaging to their personality and self-expression.

As such, the victims became less social and lost their standing in society, even seeking out the earliest forms of plastic surgery. Similar methods were largely unhelpful, however, so the punishment, unfortunately, remained effective. Often a punishment for adultery, the Egyptians weren’t the only ones to use this punishment. Historical records show it was used by the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Empires, as well as being identified in Hindu and Pre-Colombian American civilizations.^[4]

6 Cooked in a Metal Bull

Quite possibly the most gruesome entry on this list and considered by some to be the most horrible punishment and method of torture in history, what’s known as a brazen bull is an ancient Greek invention.

The victim would be placed inside an ornately crafted bronze sculpture of a bull with hollow insides, which would be heated up, cooking the person held in the bull’s stomach. To make it somehow even more terrifying, apparently, the bull had very specifically designed acoustics that would make the poor criminal’s screams of agony sound very much like the sound of a real bull, according to historical reports.

Reportedly, the creator of the device eventually fell victim to the method as well, which was typically reserved for the worst of crimes and meant to be used partially to deter people from committing them in the first place.^[5]

5 Nudity

Now to a method of punishment that has caused some modern controversy due to its implementation in HBO’s Game of Thrones. The show featured characters punished by a naked walk of atonement in public, an idea many people found to be silly, unrealistic, and simply there to appeal to people looking for certain adult themes.

While something being real doesn’t necessarily make it a right fit for a story—just as something being fake doesn’t make it inherently unfit for one—this scene does actually have a basis in history.

In medieval France, people who committed adultery were forced to go on a naked walk of shame, receiving public scrutiny, humiliation, and a ruined reputation. The act was apparently particularly focused on the women, but the men they had affairs with were also present to receive the same odd punishment.^[6]

4 Blood Eagle

A method of punishment so graphic and odd that historians argue it may not have even been real—the “blood eagle” is an ancient Viking punishment that receives just as much interest as controversy.

To put it in a plain yet still unfortunately horrific way, the method involved keeping the victim alive while their back was sliced open, their ribs broken, and organs arranged in such a way that they resembled bloody, bony wings sprouting out of a person’s back.

While there are historical records of the method, many historians consider it so gruesome, cruel, and difficult to pull off that its very existence is heavily debated to this day. Whether it was real or not, it certainly makes for a terrifyingly effective story and, perhaps, fits the frequently perceived culture of the time.^[7]

3 Tattoos

Japan is frequently present on lists regarding unique cultural practices, and as such, it was bound to have a spot here as well. The reason, thankfully, is one of the least gruesome ones we’re discussing today.

Getting a tattoo seems like a personal, aesthetical choice today. In the Edo period of Japan, however, it was a way to mark criminals to ensure that even if they were taken back in society, people roughly knew who they were dealing with, denying them an opportunity for employment, good standing in society, or starting anew with a clean slate.

The severity and type of crime would result in different tattoos; murderers would receive very noticeable markings on their heads, while thieves may walk away with a simple arm tattoo. This punishment and more recent connections to Yakuza are also the most likely reasons tattoos are stigmatized in Japan to this day.^[8]

2 Crushed by Rocks

Also known as “peine forte et dure,” French for “strong and hard punishment,” those who remained silent after a felony or refused to confess or engage with the legal system at the time were to be crushed to death by rocks, apparently.

The punished folk were to be laid on the ground and stacked with a gradually increasing amount of heavy stone weights that would slowly and painfully become their demise.

A famous and horrific example of this is Giles Corey, an 80-year-old man who refrained from entering a plea and actually standing trial at the infamous Salem witch trials—not wanting to forfeit his family’s goods—silently accepted his execution for suspected witchcraft.^[9]

1 Pig Execution

Crime is a very human concept. The idea of an animal going on trial and then receiving legal punishment is one most people would expect from a cartoon, certainly not reality. That conception, it seems, is confoundingly wrong if we were to apply it to history.

Animals that harm humans today may be euthanized, but in the past, the procedure was often vastly different. Dozens of official, legal trials have taken place all across Europe, primarily between the 14th and 16th centuries, resulting in very human punishments for what was typically livestock.

A very famous—or perhaps infamous—case of this is the execution of a female pig for the horrific crime of killing a young child. However, the details that make this case more bizarre than sad are that the sow’s children were apparently acquitted on the count of being accomplices, largely because they were too young. Another 14th-century pig, charged with killing a baby in its cradle, was found guilty of the horrendous crime. A fittingly strange detail to close the case is that the pig was dressed up as if it were human in a period-accurate waistcoat and breeches and taken to the gallows to be hung.^[10]

Slavery, one of America’s greatest tragedies, caused immeasurable suffering and loss of human life. The Stanford prison experiment is frequently cited when people discuss the brutality demonstrated by humans with power. But we don’t need to look any further than our own history for these examples.

10 Interesting Facts You Never Knew About Slavery

Slaves could be punished for any number of “offenses,” including theft, laziness, running away, or even speaking their native language. By some accounts, enslaved people were even disciplined for sport. Here are 10 of the most horrible punishments recorded for slaves in America.

Warning: This content contains graphic descriptions of various physical abuses and tortures and may act as a trigger to sensitive individuals. Great care has been taken to respect the lives and histories of the people represented as slaves. Please read at your own discretion.

10 Whipping

In America, slaves, including pregnant women and children, were often whipped as punishment. The famous image of the slave “Gordon” (aka “Whipped Peter”) reveals that the skin on his back was raised with a lattice of scars from brutal and repeated whippings.^[1]

However, some owners did not stop there. When their slaves’ wounds began to heal, these owners ordered that the wounds be split open and that products such as red pepper and turpentine be applied to the gashes. According to some accounts, one owner ground a brick into rubble and dust, mixed it with lard, and had it rubbed into the wounds of a slave.

9 Mutilation

Slaves were often expected to work in exceptionally difficult physical conditions, especially in the fields or on cotton plantations. Other slaves worked in their masters’ homes and were expected to be “well-groomed” and “clean.” These slaves often had lighter skin or “better speaking skills.”

Either way, it would make sense for slaves’ bodies to be protected and maintained. However, this rarely happened.

Particularly in cases where slaves had fought each other or resisted their owners or overseers, it was common for owners to order bodily mutilation. Sometimes, it involved cutting off an ear or slicing at the flesh. More severe examples included amputating limbs, gouging out eyes, cutting hamstrings, or even castrating both males and females.^[2]

In many cases, the victims did not receive medical treatment. Some died from infection, blood loss, and other complications.

8 Brandings

Branding refers to searing the flesh with a heated metal instrument. This type of torture was typically done to denote ownership.

Large companies often branded their slaves to make them easily identifiable and to prevent the theft and resale of slaves. Eventually, these brands were used as bodily evidence to refute claims from larger companies that the practice had never occurred.

In Louisiana, a “Code Noir” permitted the branding of slaves as punishment for running away. By 1840, New Orleans had developed the largest slave market in America, which placed innumerable people under this decree.^[3]

Particularly in the South, branding was a common punishment for running away. Often, a letter or other identifiable mark was seared onto the slave’s face. This usually prevented that person from being assigned to any house or serving work.

7 Smoked Alive

Eventually, various slave states passed laws regarding the maintenance, well-being, and rights of slaves. Theoretically, this should have given slaves some protection from cruelty and abuse. In reality, these laws were rarely enforced. Some accounts describe how different methods of punishment and abuse became more popular in different states.

Escaped slave William W. Brown discussed a common practice used in Virginia. He described an owner who had his slaves bound and whipped in the smokehouse. Then he created a fire from tobacco stems to suffocate and “smoke” the slaves as further punishment.^[4]

6 The Hogshead

Former slaves may offer the most harrowing accounts of slave abuse and torture. Moses Roper was born of his African and Native American mother, who was a slave to his English father. After Moses escaped his bondage, he wrote a book about his life. He explicitly outlined various tortures and indignities that slaves in America had to suffer.

Moses recounted the sport and pleasure that some owners took in corporal punishment. He described a slaveholder who hammered nails into a hogshead (large barrel) and left the nail points protruding inside. His slaves were stuffed into these barrels and rolled down long, steep hills while the owner and other slaves watched.^[5]

10 Slaves Who Became Roman Catholic Saints

5 Suspended Beneath A Cooking Fire

Harriet Jacobs also escaped slavery and wrote about her exploits. She described falling into the “possession” of a slave owner who sexually harassed her on a regular basis despite the protests of his wife. To avoid him, Harriet hid in the crawl space in her grandmother’s ceiling for seven years before fleeing to England.

In another harrowing account, Harriet told of a slaveholder who lived close to her. He had hundreds of slaves. His favorite punishment was to tie up a slave, suspend him above the ground, and start a fire above him. A fatty piece of pork was cooked by the fire. Then the burning fat dripped onto the bare skin of the slave.^[6]

4 Demotion Or Sale

Although this type of punishment may seem less significant than the previous horrors detailed here, it could mean the difference between life and death for a slave. George Washington was a declared fan of whipping and other corporal punishments for slaves. But he also supported the demotion of slaves who did not work hard enough and the sale of repeat runaways.

Many slaves who worked in less physically demanding conditions, such as in the house or in a skilled trade, could be demoted to work in the fields. This resulted in harsher physical conditions, more demanding physical work, and often more violent treatment from owners and overseers. In the worst cases, slaves were sold at cheap prices to owners who were known to treat their slaves poorly or even work them to death.^[7]

3 Public Burnings

Punishments were often made public. Other slaves were forced to watch as a warning that they should “behave” or be disciplined the same way. At times, other owners or people from nearby towns came to watch as a form of entertainment. After slavery was abolished, public lynchings and hangings continued into the 20th century.

One horrific method of punishment was public burning. Slaves were either tied to a stake or above a fire. Some slaves fainted or passed out from smoke inhalation before the fire began to consume their bodies. But many were tortured by the flames before they finally died.^[8]

2 Long-Term Chaining

The use of chains is well-documented throughout the history of slavery. It began on slave ships where captured Africans were shackled together in the hulls of the vessels. Long-term chaining was often meted out to repeat runaway slaves. They were chained to their workstations or to other slaves.

In some cases, long lines of slaves were shackled together to perform menial tasks in unison. This was the origin of the chain gangs that became infamous in US prisons.

One woman who became notorious for her maltreatment of slaves—even by 19th century standards—was Madame Delphine LaLaurie. Various investigations were undertaken to determine the condition of her slaves until a fire broke out in her home in 1834.

An elderly female slave, who served as a cook, supposedly started the blaze in a suicide attempt. She had been shackled to the stove with the cooking fire. Afterward, several slaves were discovered in horrific conditions in the LaLaurie attic. Suspended by their necks, they were standing with their limbs chained in a way that stretched and tore them.^[9]

1 Forced Reproduction

Slaves frequently endured severe sexual harassment and assaults, including rape. There were no laws to prevent this.

Women who became pregnant as a result of this abuse rarely received any medical care or special treatment. On the contrary, they were often handled more harshly by their masters’ wives. Effectively pimped out by their owners, male slaves were also abused and forced to sleep with various women.

Following the US Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which became effective in 1808, a shortage of slaves occurred in the South. The internal slave market boomed, which increased the demand for black people. As a result, slaves were often bought and sold based on their “childbearing” capabilities. They were forced to have sex with other slaves to produce more children.^[10]

Usually, slaves could choose with whom they would have children. But matchmaking records exist that were based on physical characteristics.

Top 10 Misconceptions About American Slavery

About The Author: Brittany is a freelance writer from New Zealand. She spends most of her time traveling, reading, and connecting with different cultures. With a professional background in mental health and addictions, she is always on the lookout for new research and breakthroughs.

Everyone has a story to tell about when they got an undeserved or uncomfortable punishment from a teacher, but are they as ridiculous as these?

From six-year-old kids being arrested to being placed in a mental facility, with these stories, you may even feel a bit better about your high school experience!

10 Banned for Being Bald

In 2014, a young girl was banned from coming to school because she had no hair. The nine-year-old girl, Kamryn Renfro, had shaved her head in support of her best friend, Delaney Clements, who had been diagnosed with cancer back in October of 2010. The young girl had walked into school that morning proud of the decision she had made. But was met with a revolting response from her charter school, Caprock Academy.

The school told her that she was suspended from school until her hair grew back in because her shaved head “violated the dress code.” The Renfro family took to social media to describe what happened to their daughter, and the public outcry led to a large wave of criticism directed toward the school.

However, by the time the news had spread nationwide, the school had already voted to allow Kamryn back in school, resulting in her only missing one day of classes. The school board voted 3-1 to allow Kamryn to come back due to “extraordinary circumstances,” with the one against only voting no because he worried it would set a “precedent for policy waivers.” Luckily, in this case, the punishment was revoked. Some of the others on this were not so lucky.^[1]

9 Forced to Eat off the Floor

In 2008, 15 students were forced to eat off the floors of their school in New Jersey. Charles Sumner Elementary School had been accused of making students eat off the floor as punishment for wasting food, but the school initially brushed off such reports as rumors.

The school in question is in Camden, an area that sees a lot of conflict between the Hispanic and Black populations. As a result, the Black vice-principal reprimanded the 15 Hispanic 5th graders when just one had spilled some water. The kids had to eat off paper tray liners on the floor while “the African-American kids were eating at tables, with trays, taunting these Hispanic kids who were forced to eat on the ground,” an attorney said.

Seven of the 15 students involved went on to file a lawsuit, resulting in them winning and getting $500,000 in a legal settlement. The children’s teacher, who had encouraged the children to file a lawsuit, was fired and also sued the school. She ended up winning the lawsuit and $75,000. The vice-principal who reprimanded the students transferred afterward.^[2]

8 The Burp Heard ‘Round the Gym

In May 2010, a 13-year-old autistic student was arrested for burping in gym class. The boy, who remains unnamed, was handcuffed and hauled away to an Albuquerque juvenile detention center after the gym teacher called a resource officer to complain about the boy “disrupting her class” at Cleveland Middle School.

The lawsuit that ensued alleges that the parents were not notified of their son being transported to the juvenile detention hall. Furthermore, the child was not even given his due process rights because he was suspended from the rest of the school year. For burping in class.

If this was not enough, another just as infuriating incident occurred at the same school in October where this same boy was carrying $200 given to him by his mother to go shopping after school. The boy was then accused of selling drugs to other students. This ridiculous accusation resulted in the child being stripped down to his underwear in front of five teachers. Ultimately, they found nothing illegal on him.

The same school district was sued a second time the same day by the family of a seven-year-old for being handcuffed to a chair after “becoming agitated in class.” So it’s not surprising that this has happened on multiple other occasions.^[3]

So, what I’m saying is, don’t go to school in Albuquerque.

7 Sent to Fake Prom

In Mississippi, a teenager named Constance McMillen was sent to a fake prom because she wanted to bring her girlfriend as her date. She had successfully sued her school for the right to bring her female partner to the dance. How did the school react? There were two proms organized, and she was sent to the secondary one that was on an earlier day, along with seven other students. The other seven students had learning disabilities and other “problems” that led to their exclusion.

The school, Itawamba Agricultural High School, had a policy banning same-sex prom dates even though, mind you, they had paid for their tickets just like everyone else had. However, the group was sent to a country club to dance rather than being able to enjoy the better and more expensive prom with their other classmates.

The teenager, along with her family, took the school to court—again. The court ruled that the school had violated her constitutional rights. The school, seeing the pressure of the media on this controversy, eventually canceled the actual prom, leaving no one to have a good prom night at all. After the case was settled, the school never did reschedule the real prom.^[4]

6 Arrested for Perfume

Here’s another case dealing with arresting children. In 2010, 12-year-old Sarah Bustamantes was handcuffed and charged with a criminal misdemeanor for spraying perfume on herself in front of her whole class at Fulmore Middle School. The child has attention deficit disorder and bipolar issues, resulting in her being very self-conscious about herself in the classroom. As she states, that makes the “other kids [not] like me.”

However, what makes this arrest even more concerning is why she put the perfume on in the first place. Her classmates were bullying her in front of the teacher, saying she smelled. Sarah said they “were saying a lot of rude things to me,” and yet the teacher did nothing to help her. But, soon after she sprayed herself with perfume, the teacher called the police officer patrolling the school to take her away.

Unfortunately, this charge was not dropped and was filed as a Class C misdemeanor under Sarah’s name, as the act of disrupting a classroom was made a criminal offense in Texas, where the child lived. The law was altered to only affect children over the age of 12 and is still in effect today. It can result in fines, community service, and even jail time.^[5]

5 Strip-Searched

When Savana Redding was 13 years old, she was strip-searched for allegedly possessing prescription-strength ibuprofen. A student who did have pills on her earlier that day pinned the blame on Savana, leading the principal to give the order to a female secretary to strip search the student.

Before being searched, Savana was called to the office, where she was asked about having any pills on her. She replied no. The principal asked if he could search her bag, to which she said, “Sure, go ahead.” But after doing so, the principal told her to follow the secretary into the nurse’s office, where she was ordered to strip down to her underwear while they searched her belongings, something she did not say yes to. Graham Boyd, an ACLU legal counsel, described how this event “violates, under any normal sense of what ought to happen under the Constitution.”

The mother described her daughter after the incident as “withdrawn,” and she was absolutely outraged and upset with what had happened to her daughter. She called the school immediately and got no response. Then she called the sheriff, and they supported the school’s choice to do so and did nothing to help. The mother asks parents to learn what the schools they send their children to can and cannot do and make sure that it does not violate any students’ rights.

Redding’s mother sued the Safford Unified School District in Arizona and the school officials who searched her daughter, arguing that they had violated the Fourth Amendment. The case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where part of the case was affirmed, and another was reversed and remanded. Ultimately, they decided Savana’s rights were violated. However, the school was not held responsible due to a question about the wording of the law at the time of the search.^[6]

4 “I’m not special”

Alex Barton, a not-quite-yet-diagnosed autistic five-year-old boy, was punished in an absolutely infuriating way that would make anyone want to rip the teacher’s head off. In 2008, Morning Side Elementary School’s kindergarten teacher, Wendy Portillo, stated that Alex’s behavior was affecting the other students. This offensive behavior consisted of Alex pushing a table up with his feet off the ground. Alex was removed from the classroom by a resource officer while the teacher spoke with the class to organize what would happen next.

Portillo stated that “she felt that if (Alex) heard from his classmates how his behavior affected them that it would make a bigger difference to him,” so she brought Alex back and stood him in the center of the room and let the other children tell him all the things they didn’t like about him. After allowing the students to ostracize the boy, Portillo led a vote on whether they should kick him out of class for the rest of the day. That resulted in a 14-2 decision: he was kicked out.

Along with Alex saying his fellow students said “disgusting” things to him, he also said Portillo said, “I hate you right now. I don’t like you today,” and that she scratched him, stepped on his shoelaces, grabbed his leg, and pulled his shirt collar while yelling at him. But the class and Portillo denied this. The mother told the police officer who was involved later in the investigation that Portillo prevented her from getting her son for five minutes while he was visibly still upset from the experience. Once Alex was home, he repeatedly said the phrase “I’m not special” to himself while putting his head down.

What’s further upsetting is that the students and her fellow teachers stated that she was a kind and “caring” teacher when she was investigated. She was eventually suspended from teaching for a year, and the school fired her and stated that they would never rehire her ever. However, Portillo did not stop here. Once she had passed her year of suspension, she was hired by Allapattah Flats K-8 School. There she was accused of discriminating and yelling and screaming at a partially deaf girl, for whom Portillo would never wear the required microphone for the girl to hear her.^[7]

So everyone agrees that she’s a horrible teacher now! Hooray!

3 Duffle Bag

Nine-year-old Christopher Baker was stuffed into a duffel bag at Mercer County Intermediate School in December of 2011. The boy, who is autistic, was placed in the bag as a form of “therapy” to treat his autism, a practice used on other students multiple times.

Christopher’s mother, Sandra Baker, reported coming to school that day on December 14 and seeing a green duffle bag drawn shut and lying next to the teacher’s aid. On getting closer, she said she could hear Christopher ask from inside of the bag, “Who’s out there?” The mother then became more upset: When asked to open the bag, the teacher’s aid struggled to open the tied drawstring for a few moments before letting a sweaty Christopher climb out. Once the bag was opened, Christopher and dozens of plastic balls fell out of the bag together.

Lydia Brown, an intern with an autistic lobby group, started a petition to implement laws against schools being able to restrain or isolate students in schools. It received 18,000 votes in just two weeks and was closed about ten years ago with 204,709 signatures. There is no evidence of anything being done about this by the Mercer County Board of Education, and the special education director was banned from commenting on the matter.^[8]

2 Mental Facility

A six-year-old Florida girl was committed to a mental facility without parental consent for two days after throwing a temper tantrum in school. The young girl, Nadia Falk, was given antipsychotic medications. As Nadia describes to her mother, “Mommy, they locked the door. They wouldn’t let me out. Mommy, they gave me a shot” when asked what had happened to her.

Love Grove Elementary School had called a licensed state mental health counselor to evaluate the child after she had thrown a giant temper tantrum and had begun to throw chairs around her room. Nadia, who had been diagnosed with ADHD and a mood disorder, was then determined to need to be committed to the mental facility under the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, which allows teachers to legally commit children two and older to mental facilities without parental consent.

The school stated that they did try to de-escalate the situation in several different ways before the counselor was called as was required and did not make the decision. The Child Guidance Center, which sent the counselor, is the organization that approved the commitment.^[9]

1 Isolation Room

In Buffalo, New York, several children were locked inside what was deemed the “isolation room” as punishment for various acts, the youngest being five years old. The room was described as barren: “jail-like” and “cold cinder block.” However, the room did have two windows and objects for the students to play with and use.

The students were locked and isolated from the other students in the room for hours at a time. Additionally, there was an eye-witness report of one mentally disabled student being “dragged by her arms” down the hallway to be locked in the room. The child was reported to still have nightmares about the day, while the teacher who ordered it only blamed the child for her misbehavior. Children locked in the room were banging on the glass, banging their heads, and screaming to be let out while the enforcing teachers stood and watched.

Jay Hall, the assistant director, was very open with reporters and stated that he had been fighting against the placement of children in this room. For providing descriptions and telling people exactly what happened there, Hall was placed on leave and received a cease and desist letter to prevent him from legally talking further about the isolation room. That very aggressive approach took away the only source that could thoroughly provide information about the process. The education department could not confirm nor deny the “existence of [any] investigations” for fairness and integrity.^[10]

Crime is inevitable, even in a world run by Pilgrims and Puritans. Where there is crime, there is punishment. Starting back in 1608 with our first documented execution, America established a penal system based on Old English ideals. This made way for some pretty not-so-great methods of punishment when it came to the New World.

During our country’s birth, incarceration was an alien concept. We may have over two million people in prison currently, but our founders did not see imprisonment as beneficial. Swift punishments meant you paid a fine, were physically brutalized, publicly shamed, or executed.

Here are 10 punishments that thankfully ended in order from bad to “oh dear God, why?”

10 Stocks

The stocks are probably the most recognizable colonial time punishment. Also known as the pillory, the stocks held your hands and head in a wooden vice so that you could not move, and you were placed in town for all to see. People were encouraged to throw trash, stones, and other things that shouldn’t be held, let alone thrown. The wooden pillory was actually an altered version of the English bilboes, which were iron rods with shackles meant to keep the victim’s arms up while being chained to their feet. However, metal was expensive, so they moved to wooden stocks instead.

In comparison to many of the other possibilities, being put in the stocks wasn’t so bad. However, what seemed to be common was that during the colonial period, punishments were thrown together like a painful, forced repentant salad. The stocks were often paired with branding, ear cropping, or whipping. In some rare instances, the stocks could be fatal due to items being missiled at the prisoner. ^[1]

9 Flogging

Flogging, or whipping, was the prom queen of penance. There was a post in town for the sole purpose of whipping criminals publicly. Besides colonists just not having much else to do in their free time, public penance was popular due to the idea that people were unmalleable. With most laws being religiously centered, whipping was also a popular choice because it was believed to awaken the spirit and remind the soul that they were to serve God. This was also justification for whipping disobedient children.

Flogging could be done with a variety of items, including whips, sticks, and a multiple rope tool called a cat-o-nine-tails. Whipping was for lower-class citizens and slaves, and because they made up the bulk of the population, it could be seen frequently. As with the stocks, death was extremely rare and not the end goal of a flogging. In most cases, the scars from a whipping could be hidden, so moving on wasn’t impossible. With the next punishment, that was not the case.^[2]

8 Branding

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne was lucky that her branding was just wearing the letter “A,” not having an A burnt into her forehead. The word “brand” has several origins, one being the Old English word for “destruction by fire,” and it worked just like it does with cattle. The metal letter is heated and pressed to the skin to make a scar. Different letters were used for different crimes. You could read it like a children’s book: “A” for adulterer, “B” for blasphemer, “D” for Drunk, “F” for forgery, and “T” for thief.

Another letter commonly branded was an “R,” which stood for runaway. Slaves were very often sentenced to physical punishments over very small indiscretions. If they tried to escape, then an “R” was branded on their foreheads. Foreheads and cheeks were popular burn sites depending on the crime. Some perpetrators could sometimes plead for mercy and get branded on the arm or hand instead. Being marked for life was not something one would relish, but a scar left behind doesn’t seem as bad as losing a whole body part. For example, an ear.^[3]

7 Ear Cropping

A man in England who lived during King Henry VIII’s reign made the mistake of saying he thought the king was dead. Well, the king was alive, and saying otherwise was treason. To the pillory he went, and his ears were nailed to the stocks. After a day passed, his ears were cut off, and he was free to go. The thing about this was the ears were going to be taken no matter what, but the goal was to make the sufferer rip their own ears off trying to escape.

There was no overarching system of rules when it came to sentencing a punishment. There was no consistency in what was considered cruel versus just. Even within a sentence of ear cropping, there were variations. Sometimes the ears were hammered to the stocks, sometimes they were straight-up removed, and sometimes only pieces were removed. As with branding, losing one’s ears was not only painful but also humiliating. Hiding your earless new look was not easily done.^[4]

6 Branks

Although arguably not as painful as losing an ear, the brank is something straight out of a horror movie. The mix of pain with the avert humiliation of the brank makes it one of the more egregious punishments. It was used for those who spoke out against the church, gossiped, or nagged. It was known as the “gossip bridle” or “scold’s helm.”

An iron cage was placed over the accused person’s head with a plate stuck into their mouth that held their tongue down. Sometimes the plate was adorned with spikes. Almost always, the plate was large enough to cause hours of gagging while wearing it. To make the brank even more degrading, it could be topped with a bell so everyone would know you were approaching or a leash to be walked through town.

There is not much documented on the brank being used in colonial America, not as much as there is on them being used in Europe, at least. However, there are records of its use, especially with slaves. One of the reasons the brank could be so horrible was there wasn’t a set time limit. Maybe you were in the brank for a few hours, maybe days. Branks were mostly for women, as was the next punishment.^[5]

5 Ducking

The terms cucking stools and ducking stools are used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Cucking stools were seats that the victim was strapped to and paraded through town. Ducking stools were the same construction, only they were placed at the end of a lever that moved up and down, dunking the person strapped in underwater. The ducking stools became so popular that Maryland eventually passed a law that all counties must have a ducking stool.

Like the brank, ducking was used mostly as a recourse for women criminals. The result of the ducking stool was supposed to be a confession from the accused or an agreement to repent for their crimes. There was no set time limit for the stool nor time to be held underwater. Casualties resulted because of this. Ducking was not supposed to be fatal, but sometimes the victim would die of shock or drowning.

All these mentioned were punishments meant to scare, harm, and humiliate. Now we move to the darker side of corporal punishment. Spoiler alert: everyone dies at the end.^[6]

4 Hanging

Hanging was the most common method for a sentence of death in Colonial America. It was used if someone committed a heinous crime such as murder, infanticide, rape, or other sex crimes. A seventeen-year-old boy from Plymouth was found guilty of several counts of buggery (bestiality, in this case), including a horse, a cow, two goats, five sheep, and a turkey. I’m not sure how these animals were calculated so succinctly, but he was hung to death, and the animals were buried alive as the good Lord intended.

Hanging could be sentenced for men and women alike, and sometimes even children. During the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730), hanging was the main form of execution for those convicted. It is estimated that 10% of the pirate population in the Caribbean during this time met the gallows in America.

Generally, the hangman was not a professional but just a law figure within the colony or a judge. This less-than-ideal experience almost certainly led to more botched hangings than successful ones. If the rope was too short, the criminal’s neck wouldn’t break, so they would strangle to death. If it was too long, they might get beheaded. Which leads us to beheadings.^[7]

3 Beheading

“Off with their heads!” is one of the most known lines in literature or from a Disney film, depending on your taste. During Colonial America, it was shameful when your severed head was posted publicly. In contrast, for most of history, beheading was reserved for the upper class and seen as honorable in Europe. If it was done correctly, it was a swift and quick death.

However, the neck is not as fragile as one may think. Just like hangings, there wasn’t anyone trained in the art of beheading. This increased the likelihood of needing more than one attempt at decapitation, creating a need for multiple swings or repeated use of the guillotine. In some instances, the blade hit the head, not the neck.

Despite the possibility of a botched beheading, it was still preferred in England and the colonies to the alternatives. Anne Boleyn, for instance, was charged with treason and adultery. King Henry VIII could have chosen her to be burned at the stake or decapitated. For the victim, it seems like an easy choice.^[8]

2 Burning at the Stake

Fire is argued as the thing that separates man from animals. The control of fire has been used for good and for horrifically bad. There is a misconception that Colonial America came to its roots of burning at the stake during the Salem Witch Trials. The problem is Salem hung their witches. This does not negate the fact that burning at the stake was a not-so-rare method of capital punishment and a brutal one at that. From the ancient world, it moved into Europe and became the symbol of anti-religious punishment. Heretics, blasphemers, and rebels were burned.

Like so many other laws and punishments in our country, being burned at the stake has a racist history. Most women who were burned at the stake were black. White women convicted of the same crimes were generally hanged. Homosexuals also had to fear the fire. Due to the religious foothold of the colonies, homosexuality was punished by burning. If you were lucky, you were granted some sort of mediation to your death. For instance, sometimes, the victim would be strapped with gunpowder so that it would explode once the heat got to a certain level and kill them instantly.

1 Drawn and Quartered

“Hanged, drawn, and quartered” sounds like an album put out by a B-rated punk band. But no, it was a form of torturous death. The sentenced criminal would be hanged, taken down from the gallows alive, have their limbs tied to four horses, and then ripped into four parts. Another variation included being drugged to the gallows by a horse, hung til almost dead, then disemboweled publically. Afterward, the corpse would be quartered.

This form of capital punishment was not a popular one and seemed to be mandated more by English occupants than actual settlers. Because of this, treason was the number one crime that was eligible for being drawn and quartered. In England, hanged, drawn, and quartered punishment was reserved only for men who were found guilty of treason. With little documentation on how exactly this was adopted in colonial America, it’s fair to say it was the same procedure.

There were dozens of punishments that would be considered cruel and unusual by today’s standards. There are references to colonists using the breaking wheel and boiling victims in oil. Both are adopted from Old England’s torturous methods of the 1500s, and both seem almost too much for us to consider as part of our heritage. Without detailed records on them, they didn’t make the list. I think we have been through enough heartbreak anyway.

Before we harshly judge the settlers and their methods of punishment, we must remember they were living in very hard times or had just survived being starved, frozen, and constantly surrounded by death for months at a time. Racism and fear also lent to the horrific practices of our penal system.^[10]