Almanac – Punishment
April 26th, 2012With Laurent in the pillory, it seems a good time to discuss punishment in the Almanac. The pillory (and its close relative the stocks) were a popular form of punishment in colonial times. In a small community like Sherbourg, being put “on display” in the town square was a humiliating and dreadful experience that continues to sting for a long time after you get out of the pillory.
Oh, I have a couple more artists Britt and I met at Pittsburgh Comicon. Wootlabs by Joe Kleinman is a webcomic of a happy family of mad scientists. I love the look and pacing of this comic. Rich Bernatovech of Drumfish Productions is releasing NeverMinds. NeverMinds is the code name for a secret, superhuman organization that offers security and investigation…for a fee. Great stuff!
‘Stocks’ are restraints consisting of boards with cutouts configured to restrain a subject, by ankles, wrists, or neck. A ‘pillory’ is an appliance that uses stocks to restrain the subject in a standing position; usually with a wrists and neck stock, though some pillories use high mounted wrist stocks and some add an ankle stock. A ‘stockade’ is an area enclosed by a solid fence, as opposed to a corral which is enclosed by a rail or wire fence; stockades enclosed by a palisade of logs were used as semi-portable jails or confinement areas in older times. ‘Bilboes’ are a type of stock or shackle usually made of metal, usually applied to the ankles to hobble a subject and optionally chained to a fixed anchor or heavy weight. ‘Shackles’ are usually made of metal or of wooden single-point (wrist, ankle, neck, and/or waist) stocks connected by metal chains or cables.
Interesting, I’d never known the difference between “pillory” and “stock”; in my head they were roughly interchangeable.
Is there a connection between the punishment stocks and the stockade fortifications? A well-researched and reliable source (wiktionary) lists stockade-as-a-military-prison as a colloquialism, which suggests not. Anything interesting to toss out?
Stocks and pillory are often confused. I didn’t even realize there was a difference until I read The Regency Underworld by Donald Low. (Description: Alongside the world of Pride and Prejudice and Vanity Fair, Byron and Keats, there also existed a pulsating underworld where crime and vice of every kind flourished. This book ventures into this forgotten world.) It’s a great resource and gave me a whole new perspective on criminal justice and historical class relationships.
Oxford English Dictionary for the win! Stocks and stockade both from the same source word in Proto-Germanic – stukkaz, which means tree trunk. Stukkaz became stoc in Old High German and that developed into stock in English. Stockade went through Spain to get to us. Stukkaz was borrowed (or possibly imported by the migrating Germanic tribes like the Visigoths) by the Spanish and used as the rook for estaca which means stake (a slightly different meaning than tree trunk). From there, we get estacada, which is a barrier of stakes. From the early 1600s to 1865, stockades were simply barriers made of sharpen stakes. In 1865, the term came to mean a prison on a military post, probably because captured soldiers were kept inside of stockades to prevent escape.
Mmm, my inner (and outer) language geekiness is sated, thanks!
Also, “estacada” is a town in Oregon, just outside Portland. Now I know where the name came from!
http://pdxhistory.com/html/estacada.html