In Curious Punishments of Bygone Days, the punishment did not always fit the crime, as this fine old illustrated history of wrath and righteousness shows. One of the earliest institutions in every New England community was a pair of stocks. The first public building was a meeting house, but often before any house of God was built, the devil got his restraining engine. And who were the heinous criminals that the righteous put in the stocks? The punishment generally, in England and America both, was for petty thieves, unruly servants, Sabbath-breakers, revilers, gamblers, drunkards, ballad-singers, fortunetellers, traveling musicians, and a variety of other offenders.

Alice Morse Earle was a social historian of great note at the turn of the century, and many of her books have lived on as well-researched and well-written texts of everyday life in Colonial America. Curious Punishments of Bygone Days was first published in 1896. It is a catalogue of early American crimes and their penalties, with chapters on the pillories, stocks, the scarlet letter, the ducking stool, discipline of authors and books, and four other horrifying examples of ways in which those who transgressed the laws of Colonial America were made to pay for their sins. Contents Include The Bilboes The Ducking Stool The Stocks The Pillory Punishments of Authors and Books The Whipping-Post The Scarlet Letter Branks and Gags Public Penance Military Punishments Branding and Maiming

'Curious Punishments of Bygone Days' is a history book published written by Alice Morse Earle. The subject of the chapters is various archaic punishments. Morse seems to make a distinction between stocks for the feet, in the Stocks chapter, and stocks for the head, described in the Pillory article- which itself clashes with the modern-day understanding of a pillory as a whipping post.

Bonded Leather binding

"Alice Morse Earle, who has made considerable reputation as a patient delver among the oddities of our Colonial times, gives us a quaint and desirable volume in her 'Curious Punishments of Bygone Days.' Her researches have gone far, and she is able to compare old English and other customs; but the book concerns itself almost wholly with the Thirteen Colonies. The bilboes and the stocks, the ducking-stool and the scold's bridle, the pillory and the whipping-post, public penance, military punishments, branding and maiming - to all these she gives chapters, fortified with extracts from the old records of court and church. These pages are not only flavorsome and highly diverting, but a very useful reminder what inhumane creatures our forefathers were only a little while ago. It is not every intelligent American who is aware, for instance, that the beastly whipping of half-stripped women at the cart's tail was for more than a century a New England custom in full force. The Spanish inquisition was not a whit more cruel than our godly ancestors of Salem and Boston and Jamestown." -The Land of Sunshine: A Southern California Magazine "A great deal of interesting information found in ransacking court records, letters, newspapers and other documents for the historical foundation of the books she has written on colonial life. The subject is not a pleasant one, she admits; but the thrill of indignation aroused by the thought of the pillory and ducking-stool is toned down by the recollection that such punishments will never be inflicted again. Antiquity may lend the cloak of dignity to such matters, but it is doubtful. The humorous element is often to the front. There is much entertainment as well as instruction." -Philadelphia Press "In this dainty little volume Alice Morse Earle has done a real service, not only to present readers, but to future students of bygone customs. To come upon all the information that is here put into readable shape, one would be obligated to search through many ancient and cumbrous records." -Boston Transcript "Mrs. Alice Morse Earle has made a diverting and edifying book in her 'Curious Punishments of Bygone Days,' which is published in a style of quaintness befitting the theme." -New York Tribune "This light and entertaining volume is the most recent of Mrs. Earle's popular antiquarian sketches, and will not fail to amuse and mildly instruct readers who love to recall the grim furnishings and habits of previous centuries, without too much serious consideration of the root from which they sprang, the circumstances in which they flourished, or the uses they served." -The Independent

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.