When we talk about the ten punishments royal sailors faced in the Age of Sail, we’re diving into a world where a captain could enforce his will with an iron fist and the crew lived under a strict regime that would shock modern sensibilities. Back in the days of old—before such trivial matters as health and safety regulations, child welfare, or human rights became things to worry about—a captain of one of His Majesty’s finest ships in the British Royal Navy could rule the poop deck (or any part of the ship) with an iron fist.

Why 10 Punishments Royal Matter

Understanding these ten punishments royal helps us grasp how discipline, fear, and spectacle kept a wooden vessel moving across oceans. Below we break down each penalty, from the everyday “starting” to the terrifying keelhauling, preserving the vivid details that made them unforgettable.

10 Starting

Many punishments were formal, as in ordered by the captain with a record kept in the ship’s log. The discipline delivered by the boatswain or bosun’s mate (a foreman of sorts) was an on‑the‑spot thing with no need of a written account. Thus, it could happen for any reason at any time.

The bosun’s mate always carried a small weapon to beat the unfortunate offender. This weapon was usually a knotted rope, small whip, or cane called a “rattan.” Sometimes, three canes were tied together and called the “three sisters.”

These beatings were known as “starting,” as in starting to beat. A bosun’s mate could be ordered to start a man until told to stop. If his arm became tired, another mate would be called to continue the abuse. These bashings were an everyday occurrence aboard a ship.

At any time, a mate could hit an unruly sailor. Unchecked, a sadistic bosun’s mate could and did cause serious harm on many occasions. Ultimately, this led to the beginning of their suppression in 1811.

9 Gagging

This punishment was used when a sailor became a little too lippy or committed other minor offenses. To teach him a lesson, his hands and legs were bound. An iron bolt would be put in his mouth, tied in place from behind his head, and left for whatever time the officer felt fit the crime. If you’ve ever seen the film Pulp Fiction, think of the pool‑balls‑in‑the‑mouth scene (shown above).

This was another punitive action not recorded in the logs because it could have dire repercussions. As it was frowned upon by the Admiralty, gagging was never an official punishment. Nevertheless, it was used on numerous occasions.

In 1867, George Addison, a crew member of the HMS Favorite, was gagged for drunkenness and violence. He died from asphyxiation within two hours.

8 Flogging

Although we have all heard of flogging, you may not be aware of just how brutal it could be. This was one of the most common punishments in the Royal Navy. Almost any crime could end with this torture.

The condemned would be whipped with a cat‑o‑nine‑tails, a whip with nine (sometimes) waxed knotted tails. When a sailor was to be flogged, he would be kept in leg irons on the upper deck for a day. This was to give him time to make the cat.

Yup, that’s right. The poor guy would have to make his own instrument of pain. If he chose not to make it or it wasn’t finished in time, the punishment could be increased. Twenty‑four hours later, the fun began.

The whole crew would assemble on deck to witness the punishment. Whichever rule the offender had broken would be read aloud from the Articles of War (a list of rules for a ship to follow). The sailor would then be asked if he had anything to say against his sentence.

His shirt would be removed, and he was tied standing to a part of the ship, usually the rigging or the opening of the gangway. The bosun’s mate had the pleasure of inflicting the punishment. He would stand at an arm’s length and lash the man with the strength of a full swing.

By 1750, floggings were restricted to 12 lashes. According to a ship’s doctor, this still left a man’s back “swollen like a pillow, looking black‑and‑blue.” Sometimes, a captain could get round the 12‑lash rule by charging a man with multiple offenses, incurring 12 lashes each. Before this, a sentence could have been issued with hundreds of strikes.

Once a dozen lashes had been carried out, a fresh mate could be called so that the hits wouldn’t lighten up. As the cat began to tear into the skin with each strike, a man’s back could end up looking like a slab of meat from a butcher’s table.

After each lash, the bosun’s mate would run his fingers through the tails to wipe off the blood. Sometimes, when changing to a fresh mate, the next one would be left‑handed so as to cross the cuts on the back and tear it up even more.

The pain didn’t end there. Afterward, the man was taken to the ship’s doctor to have his back covered in vinegar‑soaked paper or to have salt rubbed into his wounds. This treatment was to stop infection, but it could cause more pain than the actual flogging.

7 Flogging Around The Fleet

This was much the same as a normal flogging with the cat‑o‑nine‑tails, but it was more of a show for others to witness—usually when there was a collection of ships nearby in a harbor. The crew member would be tied to a small boat’s mast and lashed by the bosun’s mate.

The boat was then taken to the next ship where that vessel’s mate took his turn lashing the prisoner. This continued through all the ships, hence the term “flogging around the fleet.” For added effect, the boat was sometimes tailed by another small vessel containing a drummer boy to make the whole thing feel even more somber than it already was.

Flogging continued in the Royal Navy until 1881.

6 Cobbed And Firked

You might think that the job of a cook aboard a ship would enable a man to escape punishment for his small mistakes. Not quite. He had his own special medicine to take.

While not as serious as some of the other punishments, a cook could expect to be “cobbed and firked” for misplacing food or allowing it to spoil. This was an unofficial type of flogging done by beating the cook with sand‑filled stockings or bung staves of a cask (the wooden panels that make up a barrel).

This was not so much of a pain type of punishment as a humiliation. The culinary criminal was more likely to be stuck “as a boy”—hit on the buttocks instead of anywhere else. No one wanted to hurt the cook so much that it stopped their grub from being served up on time.

5 Child Punishment

Speaking of “as a boy,” a ship’s crew did not consist only of adult men. Young boys were often employed, usually beginning at the ages of 11 or 12. Unfortunately for them, age was no barrier to corporal punishment. We can see from surviving ships’ logs that roughly one‑third of all floggings were perpetrated against children.

At any point in time, all boys under age 19 could receive a caning for minor offenses. Much the same as for the adults, these minor punishments for children went unrecorded. This could lead to daily bullying. In one recorded instance, a captain was noted as having his boys caned every morning. When one boy had the audacity to whimper, “Please, sir,” his punishment was increased.

If the offense required a more serious punishment, a boy would be made to “kiss the gunner’s daughter.” He would be bent over a cannon in front of the rest of the crew, have his trousers dropped, and be struck on the bare behind. Other than it being a more childlike punishment, one reason for this is that the boys usually worked the rigging. Whipping their hands would impair them in this job.

By the mid‑19th century, this was done with a “cane or birch.” But before then, a reduced cat (aka “the boys’ pussy”) would be used. This was like a cat‑o‑nine‑tails but with five whip ends.

On the rare occasions when a boy was sentenced through a court‑martial, an adult cat could be used. This happened to poor Valentine Woods in 1813. The 17‑year‑old lad was sentenced to 60 lashes on his bare posterior for stabbing a crewmate. Come to think of it, maybe Valentine did deserve that one.

4 Running The Gauntlet

One of the worst things you could do in the navy was steal from your shipmates. The punishment shows that it was a hated crime by almost all. To run the gauntlet, an offender would be stripped to the waist and flogged as usual with the “thieves’ cat.” This was a cat‑o‑nine‑tails with extra knots for bonus hit points.

The offender would then be forced at sword point to walk between two rows of men who all had lengths of knotted rope. Each man had to bash the criminal as hard as possible while he slowly walked past. To stop him from walking too fast, there was also an officer in front of him with a cutlass at his chest. After that, the criminal was flogged some more for good measure.

Although mainly used for thieves, this form of punishment was also used for other crimes such as fraud and sodomy. This resulted in many casualties. After a few noted deaths, running the gauntlet was banned by 1806.

3 Falling Asleep On Watch

This was an extremely serious offense as being on watch was to guard all the lives aboard a ship. However, life at sea was boring, so falling asleep did happen a lot. If a grave punishment was meted out for the first offense, a ship would have no crew left. As a result, the consequences would escalate for sleepy sailors.

As listed in the Black Book of the Admiralty, the punishments for falling asleep were as follows. For a first offense, something as simple as a bucket of cold seawater would be poured over the offender while others laughed. Not so bad.

The next time, his hands would be tied up and cold water tipped into his shirt. Still nothing to cry about so far.

For taking a third nap on duty, a sailor would be tied to a ship’s mast and be made to hold up heavy objects with his arms stretched out wide. Most often, these objects were cannon chambers. This became quite painful after a while. In addition, the officer in charge was allowed to inflict whatever extra pain he wished.

The fourth punishment put an end to Mr. Sleepybones’s slumbering adventures—mainly because he was dead when it was over. He was put in a basket which was hung from the bowsprit (the pointy mast that sticks out at the front of a ship). He was guarded by an armed sentry who was instructed to kill the offender if he tried to escape. Then he was left to starve to death.

However, the prisoner did have a couple of options. He would be allowed a knife, so there was always the choice to cut his own wrists. Alternatively, he could slice the basket’s rope and drown in the open sea.

2 Hanging From The Yardarm

The hanging basket method was not the only means of execution. In the 18th century, such grievous crimes as striking an officer, desertion, or being guilty of “indecent practices” could result in an execution.

By the 1800s, this was more for serious things like mutiny or murder. Whatever the crime, a court‑martial could end with the order of a hanging from the yardarm. Unlike the more modern usage of drop hanging in which a prisoner will die instantaneously, a yardarm death was slow and painful.

The condemned man would have his hands and feet tied, and a noose was placed around his neck. The crew stood on deck to watch. A gunshot was the signal for a group of men holding the rope to begin pulling. The prisoner would be “run up the yardarm” and left there to die from strangulation. After an hour, his body was taken down.

This type of execution was last carried out in 1860 after Royal Marine John Dalliger murdered a lieutenant and the commanding officer of the HMS Leven. He had been caught stealing brandy.

1 Keelhauling

This was possibly the worst punishment during the Age of Sail. Never officially sanctioned by the Royal Navy due to its barbaric cruelty to the condemned, keelhauling was still carried out on numerous occasions before being banned around the year 1720.

The victim would be stripped naked on the deck of a ship in full sight of the rest of the crew. He would have two ropes tied to him. One of them ran underneath the bottom of the ship (the “keel”).

The man would then be hung over the side of the ship, pulled underwater, and hauled along the keel by the second rope until he emerged on the other side. This could be carried out as slowly as the officers in charge wanted or repeated as many times as ordered.

A weight was tied to the man’s legs to make sure that his body was properly in line with the hull. This resulted in many drownings. But if that didn’t kill him, the man had other things to deal with.

Underwater, a ship’s hull (especially a wooden ship) was covered in barnacles. As any child who has slipped on a barnacle‑covered rock at the seaside will tell you, they are sharp. Very sharp. Like being dragged along a giant, razor‑sharp, cheese grater, the barnacles tore the flesh of the man. If he managed to survive this awful event, he would certainly be scarred for life.

The Persian Empire prided itself on a meticulous legal code that weighed a criminal’s past deeds against the severity of the offense. Their philosophy held that no one should be put to death for a first‑time mistake, yet anyone who earned a sentence of suffering was expected to endure a penalty that matched the gravity of their crime. In short, ancient Persian punishments were designed to be as unforgettable as they were brutal.

Ancient Persian Punishments That Shocked the Empire

10 Making A Chair Out Of Your Skin

When the judge Sisamnes accepted a bribe, King Darius decided that a stark warning was essential. He ordered the corrupt magistrate’s throat slit, then commanded executioners to strip him of every inch of skin, fashioning the flesh into long strips of human leather.

Those strips were sewn together to create a grotesque chair, which Darius placed on the bench of Sisamnes’s successor. The new judge, who happened to be the slain man’s own son, was forced to sit each day upon a seat made from his father’s flesh, a constant reminder never to betray the law.

Darius believed that such a visceral display would embed the lesson of integrity deep within the judiciary, ensuring that no future official would ever contemplate a bribe again.

9 Drowning In A Pool Of Ashes

One of the most terrifying sentences reserved for high treason or blasphemy involved a 23‑meter‑tall hollow tower packed entirely with dry ash and massive rotating wheels. The condemned would be hoisted onto a sliding platform at the summit, then dropped into the ash‑filled abyss below.

The initial fall often shattered bones, but the surrounding ash kept the victim alive long enough for the true horror to begin. Executioners turned the wheels, causing the ash to whirl violently, forcing fine particles into the prisoner’s nostrils and mouth.

As the ash infiltrated his lungs, the victim would suffocate slowly, choking on the hot, powdery dust until death claimed him. This method was so infamous that a biblical account mentions a corrupt priest meeting his end in such a tower, concluding that “it was just what he deserved.”

8 Pouring Molten Gold Down Your Throat

When Roman Emperor Valerian fell into Persian hands, Shapur I turned him into a living spectacle. The captured ruler was shackled, paraded before troops, and forced to serve as a literal footstool, kneeling while the Persian king mounted his horse.

After weeks of humiliation, Shapur grew bored and executed Valerian in a particularly gruesome fashion: molten gold was poured down the emperor’s throat, scorching his insides. The corpse was then skinned, stuffed with straw, and displayed in a temple as a macabre trophy.

7 Tearing People Apart With Trees

In later Persian history, thieves faced a death so graphic it seemed straight from a horror film. Executioners would drive two tall trees close together, tie a rope between their tops, and fasten the condemned’s legs to each tree.

When the rope was cut, the trees snapped back to their upright positions with tremendous force, ripping the captive’s body cleanly in two. Within seconds, the two halves of the victim hung from the trees, a gruesome warning posted along busy trade routes.

Passers would see the split bodies and instantly understand the dire consequences of stealing or assaulting travelers under Persian law.

6 Crushing Your Servants’ Heads With Stones

While Persian law tried to be impartial, royalty still bent the rules for personal convenience. When King Artaxerxes II’s mother, Parysatis, murdered his wife Stateira, the king could not bring himself to execute his own mother.

Instead, he ordered a brutal retaliation against her servants. After uncovering the poison‑tainted knife that had been used to kill Stateira, Artaxerxes forced the culprits to confess, then smashed the meat‑cutter’s skull with a massive stone.

Parysatis was merely exiled, then later welcomed back to the court, even influencing the king to marry his own daughter—showing how class and family ties could twist justice in the Persian realm.

5 Chaining Dismembered People To Gates

Rebellion against King Darius was met with a punishment designed for maximum public humiliation. Leaders of the revolt were captured, then had their noses, ears, tongues, and one eye removed—yet they were not killed outright.

The mutilated rebels were chained to the front gate of Darius’s palace, forced to endure weeks of jeering, beating, and exposure. Their lieutenants, however, were decapitated and their heads displayed atop the city citadel.

Only after the rebels could no longer bear the agony were they finally allowed to die, turning their suffering into a stark deterrent for any future insurgents.

4 Making The Slaughter Of Your People An Annual Holiday

The Magi, Zoroastrian priests, once enjoyed reverence, but one overambitious Magus named Smerdis deceived the populace by claiming lineage from Cyrus the Great and seized the throne. Though his rule brought reforms, his usurpation angered the people.

When Smerdis was overthrown and killed, the populace unleashed a frenzy, hunting down and murdering every Magi they could find. The bloodshed was so extensive that the survivors institutionalized the carnage as an annual observance.

Each year, on the anniversary of Smerdis’s death, Persians celebrated “the Slaughter of the Magi,” marching through streets and executing any priest caught outside, turning a political purge into a recurring holiday.

3 Letting Insects Eat You Alive

Scaphism, perhaps the most infamous Persian torture, was reserved for those the king despised. The victim was stripped naked and placed in a hollowed‑out tree trunk or two boats, limbs protruding to expose skin to the sun.

He was force‑fed milk and honey, causing severe diarrhea that sealed him within his own waste. The exposed flesh was smeared with honey, attracting swarms of insects that feasted on the living flesh while wasps stung relentlessly.

Executioners kept the prisoner alive by continuing to feed him, prolonging the agony for days or even weeks. Historical accounts note a victim endured 17 days of this torment before finally succumbing.

2 The Triple Death

Some crimes were deemed so heinous that the Persians believed a single death was insufficient. One eunuch who angered Cyrus the Great’s wife suffered a three‑stage execution: first, his eyes were gouged out; after recovery, he was flayed alive; finally, once healed again, he was crucified.

Another case involved a soldier who falsely claimed credit for killing Cyrus the Younger. The king’s mother intervened, ordering a sequence of tortures: ten days on the wheel, followed by eye removal, and ultimately pouring molten brass into his ears until death.

These layered executions ensured the condemned experienced death’s terror multiple times, reinforcing the empire’s zero‑tolerance stance on betrayal.

1 Forcing People To Eat Their Children

When Median King Astyages dreamed that his grandson would overthrow him, he ordered General Harpagus to abandon the infant in the wilderness. Defying the order, Harpagus gave the child to a shepherd, who raised him as his own.

Years later, Astyages discovered the deception and exacted a cruel revenge: he slaughtered Harpagus’s own son, roasted the flesh, and served it to his father at a banquet. Harpagus, unaware at first, eventually realized he was eating his child.

Astayages forced Harpagus to acknowledge the horror, taunting him with the question, “Do you know what beast’s meat you have eaten?” The general, terrified of further retribution, praised the dish and requested the remaining portions, later burying the last scraps of his son’s remains.

“If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime” is a well‑known saying that reminds us to expect the fallout of our actions. Yet, sometimes the fallout feels wildly out of proportion. In this roundup of 10 punishments that don’t exactly fit the crime, we dive into some truly odd, extreme, and downright puzzling consequences.

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

Bald eagles have symbolized America since 1782. After being listed as endangered in 1978, they were removed from that list in 2007 thanks to massive conservation efforts. While hunting and killing these birds is clearly illegal, the law also makes possessing anything related to them a crime—even a single feather you might stumble upon.

The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940 bars anyone from taking, possessing, or trafficking eagles, their nests, eggs, or feathers. The act explicitly mentions “possess” alongside hunting, aiming to curb poaching and illegal trade. A first‑offense violation can result in up to a $100,000 fine, a year behind bars, or both.

Only members of recognized Native American tribes may legally hold eagle feathers for ceremonial purposes. While the maximum penalties sound harsh, in practice you’re unlikely to face prison for finding a lone feather. Still, you could be ordered to surrender it, and refusal might trigger legal action.

9 Thai Cops Are Punished With Hello Kitty Armbands

Humiliation has long been used as a form of discipline, from the scarlet letters of literature to modern‑day shaming tactics. In Thailand, errant police officers receive a particularly eye‑catching brand of humiliation: a pink Hello Kitty armband.

When a cop is caught breaking minor rules—like littering or parking illegally—they’re placed on desk duty wearing the bright‑pink Hello Kitty band. The armband isn’t displayed publicly; instead, fellow officers see it, turning the punishment into a private but unmistakable badge of shame.

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

In 1880, Queen Sunandha Kumariratana and her daughter were crossing a river when their boat capsized. Despite a crowd of guards and servants, no one attempted a rescue because a law at the time forbade anyone from touching a royal family member under any circumstances, punishable by death.

The strict rule meant that even a life‑saving touch would have been a capital crime, so the Queen and her daughter tragically drowned. Legend says the king imprisoned those who might have saved them and subsequently abolished the law to prevent a repeat.

7 Attempted Suicide Has Been Criminalized In Many Countries

Most societies today view a suicide attempt as a sign of mental illness needing treatment. Historically, however, many jurisdictions treated it as a criminal act. In Britain, attempts were punishable up to the 1950s, sometimes resulting in jail time.

Going further back, the 13th‑century law in England dictated that if someone took their own life, the surviving family lost all possessions to the Crown. While England eventually decriminalized the act, many countries still retain statutes making attempted suicide illegal. The Bahamas, for example, can sentence a survivor to life imprisonment.

6 DreamWorks Animators Were Punished By Having to Work on Shrek

Most workplaces handle underperformance with warnings or termination. DreamWorks Animation took a different route in its early days. After the studio’s first film, The Prince of Egypt, an animator who messed up was reassigned to work on the then‑unfinished Shrek.

Shrek’s production began around 1995 and dragged on until its 2001 release, earning a reputation as the studio’s “ugly stepchild.” The project suffered from a tiny budget, a constantly shifting team, and a story many deemed terrible. Animators coined the term “Shreked” for this punishment, reflecting the grueling, seemingly endless work on a film that many expected to flop.

5 Etiquette Breaches at Oxford Were Punishable By Drinking Beer

When institutions police themselves, punishments can sometimes feel more symbolic than corrective. At Oxford University, students who breach etiquette—whether by speaking Latin poorly or discussing women inappropriately—face a quirky sanction called “sconcing.”

Sconcing forces the offender to drink a pint of beer, often turning into a group drinking game where everyone participates. The tradition dates back to the 1600s and has evolved into various forms, resembling a live‑action version of “Never Have I Ever.”

4 A Teen Was Tried As an Adult For Sending Selfies of a Minor (Himself)

In the digital age, child‑pornography cases have surged, prompting specialized cybercrime units. In North Carolina, a 17‑year‑old was tried as an adult for possessing nude photos of an underage individual—himself. The images were selfies taken when he was 16.

Facing severe penalties, the teen accepted a plea deal to avoid being placed on the sex‑offender registry and to sidestep jail time. He was charged with four counts of making and possessing his own images and one count involving a photo of his girlfriend, who was the same age. Both teens were deemed both perpetrators and victims.

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

During the 1960s Vietnam draft, many opposed conscription, including famed author George R. R. Martin. He applied for conscientious‑objector status and was granted it quickly, but the draft board retaliated by branding him a “coward for life.”

Martin says this lifelong label was the price he paid for avoiding the war—a social stigma that, while harsh, he has managed to live with.

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

Schools are supposed to nurture, yet some disciplinary actions border on the absurd. In a few cases, blind students have had their essential mobility aids confiscated as punishment.

In Kansas City, an eight‑year‑old who habitually fidgeted with his cane was accused of striking a peer on a bus. The school replaced his cane with a pool noodle. Meanwhile, a UK school banned a blind girl from using her white cane, citing safety concerns for other students.

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

Among the oddities listed, this one is perhaps the most shocking: selling a child was not a crime in Mississippi until 2009. In 2008, a woman attempted to sell her granddaughter for $2,000 and a car. Because the state lacked a law criminalizing the sale of a human being, she could only be charged with a unrelated probation violation.

The case sparked legislative change, finally outlawing child sales. However, even today, there is no federal statute explicitly prohibiting the sale of children, though recent laws address sex trafficking without covering outright sales for adoption or profit.

In the modern Western world, the legal system usually boils down to a fine or a stint behind bars, calibrated to the seriousness of the offense. That straightforward approach, however, masks a far more colorful—and often macabre—past. Throughout history, authorities have devised a staggering array of punishments that are as inventive as they are unsettling.

From humiliating public spectacles to outright grotesque executions, we’re about to tour ten of the most outlandish judicial penalties ever documented. Buckle up, because the legal imagination of our ancestors was truly something else.

10 strangest judicial punishments explored

10 Drunkard’s Cloak

The infamous “drunkard’s cloak,” sometimes called the Newcastle cloak, was a punishment reserved for repeat offenders who couldn’t keep their wits about them after too many ales. The concept was brutally simple: a massive wooden barrel—originally meant for storing spirits—was hollowed out, holes were cut for the head and limbs, and the hapless drunk was forced to don the barrel as a kind of grotesque garment.

While the offender shuffled through town, the barrel’s weight made every step a grueling ordeal, and the crowd’s jeers turned the procession into a public shaming ritual. Townsfolk would mock and hurl insults, turning the spectacle into a local event. The sheer heft of the barrel often caused injuries, turning humiliation into a physically taxing experience that likely discouraged future mischief.

Beyond the obvious discomfort, the heavy wooden “shirt” served as a stark warning to onlookers: repeat offenses could land you in a barrel, paraded for all to see, with the added risk of bruises and broken bones. It was a punishment that combined spectacle, pain, and social ostracism in one heavy package.

9 Shame Masks

In medieval Europe, the authorities sometimes opted for a more theatrical form of humiliation: the shame mask. Crafted from cold metal, these masks featured bizarre, animal‑like designs intended to make the wearer look absurd. The masks were often displayed in museums today as relics of a bygone era of public censure.

Primarily used against women, the masks—also known as “scold’s bridles”—targeted gossip, dishonesty, eavesdropping, and gluttony. The design of each mask reflected the specific crime; for instance, a longer nose indicated a liar. Victims were sometimes chained and led through town while a bell tolled, ensuring the entire community witnessed the spectacle.

The metallic headgear turned the offender into a walking caricature, a visual reminder that certain behaviors would not be tolerated. By making the punishment overtly ridiculous, authorities hoped to deter similar conduct through sheer embarrassment.

8 Trees

Warning: this method leans heavily into the gruesome. In the ancient Persian Empire, a particularly inventive—and brutal—execution involved two bent trees. Thieves were tied to the trunks, each limb bound to a separate tree, and the trees were flexed backward and secured with ropes.

When the ropes were cut, the trees snapped back to their upright positions, tearing the bound criminal apart as the wood snapped back to its natural form. The victim’s limbs were pulled in opposite directions, resulting in a swift, albeit horrific, dismemberment. This method was meant to be a rapid and terrifying deterrent for theft.

Although the technique sounds almost mythic, contemporary accounts suggest it was indeed employed, showcasing the lengths to which societies would go to punish property crimes. The sheer visual of a person being ripped apart by trees would have left an indelible mark on any onlookers.

7 Ancient Egyptian Nose Cutting

Facial features have always been central to personal identity, making them a potent target for punitive measures. In ancient Egypt, nose amputation was a sanctioned penalty for certain transgressions, most notably adultery.

Removing the nose not only left the victim alive but also stripped them of a key expressive feature, severely damaging their social standing. The loss of a nose hindered speech and facial expression, effectively marginalizing the individual from community life. Historical records show that this practice spread beyond Egypt, appearing in Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Hindu, and pre‑Columbian societies.

Victims often turned to early forms of reconstructive surgery, but the stigma remained. By physically altering a person’s visage, societies aimed to enforce moral standards while ensuring the punishment was both visible and enduring.

6 Cooked in a Metal Bull

The brazen bull stands out as perhaps the most infamous of all ancient torture devices. Invented in Greece, this bronze sculpture resembled a bull with a hollow interior. The condemned was locked inside, and a fire was set beneath the metal, turning the bull into a scorching oven.

Ingeniously, the bull’s interior was designed to channel the victim’s screams into sounds resembling a bull’s bellow, creating a macabre auditory illusion for onlookers. Reserved for the gravest offenses, the device served as both execution and a terrifying warning.

Ironically, the creator of the brazen bull met his own end within his invention, underscoring the device’s lethal reputation. Its legend persists as a symbol of extreme cruelty in the annals of punitive history.

5 Nudity

While modern pop culture often dramatizes public nudity as titillating, the practice has a genuine historical precedent. In medieval France, individuals convicted of adultery were subjected to a “walk of shame” in the nude, forced to traverse public streets while exposed.

The naked procession inflicted severe humiliation, especially upon women, whose reputations were already vulnerable. Men involved in the affair were also compelled to endure the same exposure, amplifying the social stigma attached to the crime.

Although the concept was later popularized by television series, the underlying punishment was a stark reminder that societies have long employed bodily exposure as a means of moral correction.

4 Blood Eagle

The blood eagle, a legendary Viking execution, remains shrouded in controversy. Some scholars argue the method never truly existed, yet the descriptions are graphic enough to capture imaginations.

According to accounts, the victim’s back was sliced open while they remained alive; ribs were broken, and the lungs were spread out to resemble a pair of wings. The gruesome tableau was meant to symbolize the victim’s soul taking flight, serving as a terrifying deterrent.

Whether fact or myth, the blood eagle epitomizes the brutal reputation of Viking justice, illustrating how extreme punishments were used to convey power and vengeance.

3 Tattoos

In Edo‑period Japan, tattoos served a punitive function rather than an artistic one. Criminals were marked with permanent ink to signal their offenses, effectively branding them for life.

The severity of the crime dictated the tattoo’s location and size: murderers might receive conspicuous markings on the head, while thieves could be marked on the arm. These visible identifiers barred former offenders from respectable employment and social reintegration.

The practice laid the foundation for the modern stigma surrounding tattoos in Japan, linking them historically to criminality and the Yakuza, and highlighting how bodily alteration can be weaponized as social control.

2 Crushed by Rocks

The French phrase “peine forte et dure,” meaning “strong and hard punishment,” described a method where defiant defendants were subjected to an ever‑increasing weight of stones placed upon their bodies until they collapsed.

This brutal tactic forced suspects who refused to plead—often to protect family assets—to endure a slow, crushing death. One of the most famous victims was Giles Corey, an octogenarian who chose silence during the Salem witch trials to safeguard his estate, ultimately succumbing to the relentless pressure of stones.

The method underscores how legal systems sometimes leveraged physical oppression to compel compliance, turning the courtroom into a stage for literal crushing pressure.

1 Pig Execution

Animal trials may sound like a cartoon, but medieval Europe witnessed actual legal proceedings against livestock. Between the 14th and 16th centuries, pigs and other animals faced formal charges and were sentenced to human‑style punishments.

One notorious case involved a sow accused of killing a child. The pig’s offspring were deemed too young to be held accountable and were acquitted, while the mother was dressed in a period‑accurate waistcoat and breeches and hanged on a gallows, mirroring a human execution.

Another pig, convicted of murdering an infant in its cradle, met the same fate. These trials reflect a legal culture that extended human notions of culpability to animals, treating them as full participants in the justice system.

When we talk about the top 10 horrible ways enslaved people were tormented in the United States, the stories are chilling, shocking, and painfully real. Slavery stands as one of America’s darkest chapters, and the cruelty inflicted on human lives was often as inventive as it was savage. Below you’ll find a detailed, yet conversational, rundown of the ten most gruesome punishments recorded in American history.

Why These Are the Top 10 Horrible Punishments

10 Whipping

In the United States, owners routinely lashed slaves—including expectant mothers and youngsters—as a method of discipline. The infamous portrait of a man known as “Gordon,” also called “Whipped Peter,” shows a back covered in a lattice of scarred skin, evidence of relentless, repeated floggings.

Yet some masters escalated the cruelty. When the fresh wounds began to knit, they ordered the injuries to be cut open again, then smeared with irritants such as red pepper and turpentine. One harrowing account even describes an owner grinding a brick into dust, mixing it with lard, and forcing the gritty paste into the slave’s open wounds.

9 Mutilation

Enslaved laborers were often forced to toil under brutally harsh physical conditions, whether on sprawling cotton fields or within the confines of a plantation house where a polished appearance was demanded. Those with lighter complexions or more refined speech were sometimes assigned to domestic work, yet protection of their bodies was rarely a priority.

When slaves clashed with each other or resisted their overseers, owners frequently resorted to savage mutilation. The spectrum of violence ranged from cutting off an ear or slicing flesh to more extreme acts such as amputating limbs, gouging out eyes, slicing hamstrings, or even castrating both men and women.

Medical care was a rarity. Victims often succumbed to infection, massive blood loss, or other complications stemming from the brutal injuries inflicted upon them.

8 Brandings

Branding involved searing a heated metal instrument into a slave’s flesh, typically to mark ownership. Large enterprises would brand slaves to make them instantly identifiable and deter theft or resale, later using these marks as bodily proof that such practices had indeed occurred.

In Louisiana, the “Code Noir” authorized branding as a penalty for runaway slaves. By 1840, New Orleans had become the nation’s biggest slave market, subjecting countless individuals to this gruesome decree.

Across the Southern states, branding was a common response to escape attempts. Often a letter or distinctive symbol was burned onto a slave’s face, effectively barring them from household duties or skilled work and branding them as perpetual property.

7 Smoked Alive

Although various slave states passed statutes that ostensibly protected enslaved people’s welfare, enforcement was virtually nonexistent. Over time, distinct punitive methods gained regional popularity.

Escaped slave William W. Brown recounted a terrifying practice in Virginia: an owner would bind slaves in a smokehouse, whip them, then ignite a fire using tobacco stems. The resulting smoke would suffocate the captives, adding another layer of torment.

6 The Hogshead

First‑hand testimonies from former slaves often reveal the most grotesque forms of cruelty. Moses Roper, born to an African mother and a Native American mother enslaved by his English father, escaped and chronicled his experiences, detailing a litany of barbaric punishments.

Roper described a perverse pastime where a slaveholder hammered nails into the interior of a large barrel—known as a hogshead—leaving sharp points protruding inward. Enslaved people were then crammed inside and rolled down steep hills for the amusement of the owner and onlookers.

10 Slaves Who Became Roman Catholic Saints

5 Suspended Beneath A Cooking Fire

Harriet Jacobs, another escaped enslaved woman, documented the horrors she endured. She fled from a lecherous owner who repeatedly assaulted her, ultimately hiding in her grandmother’s attic crawlspace for seven years before escaping to England.

In a separate gruesome tale, Jacobs reported a nearby slaveholder who owned hundreds of enslaved individuals. His favorite punishment involved tying a slave upright, igniting a fire above them, and cooking a slab of pork. As the fat melted, it dripped onto the captive’s exposed skin, searing them with burning grease.

4 Demotion Or Sale

While this punishment may appear less overtly violent than others on this list, its ramifications could be life‑or‑death. George Washington, a noted proponent of whipping and other corporal punishments, also endorsed demoting slaves who fell short of expectations and selling repeat offenders.

Enslaved people who once performed domestic or skilled labor could be stripped of those positions and forced into the backbreaking work of the fields. This shift exposed them to harsher conditions, more severe overseer abuse, and, in the worst cases, sale to particularly cruel owners who would work them to death.

3 Public Burnings

Public spectacles of punishment were common, intended to intimidate the enslaved population. Other slaves were forced to watch as a stark warning that any disobedience could lead to a similarly gruesome fate. Spectators from neighboring towns often attended, treating the ordeal as entertainment.

One especially barbaric method involved tying a slave to a stake or suspending them above a fire. Some victims lost consciousness from smoke inhalation before the flames took hold, while others endured the agonizing burn of the fire itself until death.

2 Term Chaining

The use of iron shackles is well documented throughout the slave trade, beginning on slave ships where captured Africans were bound together in the vessel’s hull. For repeat runaways, owners often imposed long‑term chaining, attaching slaves to workstations or to one another.

Sometimes entire lines of enslaved people were linked by chains to perform menial tasks in unison—a practice that later evolved into the chain gangs of American prisons.

One notorious figure, Madame Delphine LaLaurie, became infamous for her extreme maltreatment of slaves, even by 19th‑century standards. Investigations into her household continued until a fire erupted in 1834.

According to accounts, an elderly female slave who worked as a cook allegedly set the blaze as a desperate suicide attempt. She had been shackled to the stove’s fire, and after the flames spread, investigators uncovered a horrifying scene in LaLaurie’s attic: numerous slaves suspended by their necks, limbs stretched and torn by chains.

1 Forced Reproduction

Enslaved individuals routinely endured severe sexual violations, including rape, with no legal protections to shield them. Pregnant women resulting from such assaults rarely received medical attention; instead, they often faced harsher treatment from their masters’ wives.

Male slaves were likewise exploited, effectively “pimped out” by owners and forced into sexual relations with multiple women. This systemic abuse was a calculated means to increase the slave population.

Following the 1808 U.S. Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves, a shortage of enslaved labor spurred a booming internal market. As a result, slaves were frequently bought and sold based on their perceived child‑bearing potential, and owners compelled them to mate with other enslaved people to produce more offspring.

While some enslaved people could choose partners, many were matched according to physical characteristics documented in meticulous records, turning human lives into commodities.

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]