Curious Punishments of
Bygone Days

Curious Punishments
of
Bygone Days,

by

Alice Morse Earle.

The Illustrations
BY FRANK HAZENPLUG

Loompanics Unlimited
Port Townsend, Washington

Originally published 1896
Reprinted by
Loompanics Unlimited

ISBN 0-915179-53-9
Library of Congress Catalog
Card Number 86-082642

The Contents

FOREWORD.

In ransacking old court records, newspapers, diaries and letters forthe historic foundation of the books which I have written on colonialhistory, I have found and noted much of interest that has not been usedor referred to in any of those books. An accumulation of notes onold-time laws, punishments and penalties has evoked this volume. Thesubject is not a pleasant one, though it often has a humorous element;but a punishment that is obsolete gains an interest and dignity fromantiquity and its history becomes endurable because it has a past onlyand no future. That men were pilloried and women ducked by ourlaw-abiding forbears rouses a thrill of hot indignation which dies downinto a dull ember of curiosity when we reflect that they will never bepilloried or ducked again.

An old-time writer dedicated his book to “All curious and ingeniousgentlemen and gentlewomen who can gain from acts of the past a delightin the present day